This has helped me understand my spending when I was saving for a downpayment, and now helps me track certain expenses I need to submit for taxes.

You should only have to change when your current software has a flaw or lacking feature that is causing you to spend too much work on a work-around.

I spend 3 hours on Redfin and Zillow, but it's hard to look for something when I have no idea what to look for.

No need to spend the money yet! 

I’d recommend spending 20-30 minutes researching local competitors to get a sense of what their cleaning fees look like.

Narrow in on a community, buy a house, hold on.P.S.

I'm currently spending time learning as much as I can from various resources including books here on BP, accumulating capital and structuring my strategy. 

Also, make sure you spend the time building a solid team (agent, lender, property manager) and run the numbers through your team multiple times.

That said, there would be arguably no business purpose to bringing your family along with you, so even if you are spending the entire time searching for real estate.

Outside of real estate, I enjoy spending time with my wife and kids, as well as playing golf, collecting comics and sports cards, and binging the next show on Netflix.I am very excited to meet people with common interests, network, learn, and help where I can.