IMHO the key is having an agent on the buy side who understands the process and can make some magic happen for you. 

My wife wants to move to a better neighborhood with good school districts and I'm for it.

Springfield has 2 big hospitals and a School of Medicine and lots of political travelers so mid terms can do well.

But then moving to actually renting while our children finish school and investing out of state instead. 

Focus on areas near job hubs and good schools, as they attract reliable tenants.

In addition, there's a church, Bethel Church, and they have a ministry school, Bethel School of Supernatural MInistry, which is expanding to have 3000 students.

In all honesty if it's just one flip property I don't know if the $1,000 - $2,000 premium to have someone that markets themselves as a real estate CPA would yield you a good ROI in tax savings or some magical compliance maneuver.

For a new agent to land a listing they typically over promise a seller a high price to win it and then spend money trying to find the magical buyer to purchase it.

I got the Discover It Secured card in high school and used that to build up my credit. 

With syndications many operators are using finance magic to juice returns, but that can result in full wipeout on the investors.