If you want to spend a lot of time, $ and effort without a lot of bang for your dollar, go with Salesforce. otherwise there are a lot of good products out there (some mentioned above). i really like Insightly - because it is easy to use, lots of great simple reports and followup features, and you can link different people to to each other so you know who knows who... 

@Felipe PintoHey Filipe, I think Gastonia is a great place to invest and where I spend most of my efforts.

@Ryan DaultonNot a specialist in this but I was told I could not spend a penny of my personal money or sweat on this whether it be furniture, a light fixture or anything and that seems to be in line with the comment above

Consider direct mail campaigns targeting homeowners who might be ready to sell and spend time driving around looking for distressed properties.

Then decide in your spending versus objectives.LongtermBillboardsVehicle advertisingBus benches or bus advertisingEtcShort term.Yard signsGoogle adsFacebookPostcardsEtc.

If I was first starting out with $100K, I would spend some money on marketing to get deals direct to seller to get better deals.

Net income is calculated after accounting for deductible expenses like mortgage interest, repairs, and depreciation.Depreciation is particularly important because it’s a non-cash expense—it’s a paper expense that reduces your taxable income but doesn’t actually require you to spend cash out of pocket.

If you wanna use/spend the money, no way to save taxes.Time to take the bandage out, and pay for it. 

I have a team of 5 that spend the entire day sourcing deals for my investors.I would say you should connect with a good agent that can show you the ropes and provide you with the right resources to learn the market fast. 

.- best chance of near term success is local to you, somewhere you can drive roundtrip with time to spend at the property in a day. - reality is MLS listings using realistic expense estimates at high LTV is cash flow negative