I would also start scouting employers that are hiring to make sure you don't spend a lot of time learning the wrong area.

@Brian KosackSome good sites to look into are neighborhood scout and city data Also you want to consider the tenant class you are looking into- Have you analyzed deals in the areas you are looking into?

We have all of our funds tied up in our most ambitious flip yet for at least a year, so this is going to be a scouting trip and not a buying trip.I've been interested in Lubbock TX, for a while, and that's the place I know the most about.  

We are heading to Taromina in Sept to scout. 

@Patrick Desjardins  its why we pretty much control all process of our note business.. we don't waste a bunch of time on scouting or trying to figure out values and condition of property..

I'm working on building a website and designing business cards, but in the meantime I thought I would drive around the neighborhood just to scout it out. 

Networking on her will help too, driving around your preferred area is a time-tested way to scout out possibilities, and then you can use tax records, foreclosure filings, sheriff sale lists to dig up info on some of them.

The company I am scouting for believes in visiting the houses in person, as these people are already getting plenty of mail and phone calls.

Traditional avenues of financing will be off-limits for awhile, but there will be numerous avenues you can utilize that will make real estate investing not just a possibility, but a certainty:•Bird Dogging – As a bird dog you work as a real estate scout, doing the leg work of locating available properties for investors who will actually close the deals.

I am about to start looking at some homes that I have scouted with a Realtor.