How do I look for homes?

[Rahul Srivastava]

Hey everyone, so I'm a newbie first time real estate investor and home buyer. I want to move to Atlanta since I like the city. My plan is to buy a home and live in it for a few years before renting it out to someone else. 

Anyways, my main question is how do I look for homes? I'm using zillow for the most part but are there better ways to look for homes? I have heard MLS which I can't access and driving around neighborhoods but I am not from the Atlanta area (currently live in South FL) so that's not possible. At this point, I'm working on saving up money for a down payment (have 25k so far, I will continue saving into mid 2022 so I am hoping to have at least 40k by that point) and also looking for homes in different areas that look good.

Is it best to plan a trip to ATL and drive around so I can get a feeling for the neighborhoods/homes? or can I effectively research homes online?