We do need to polish up on our sailing skills though, we're not quite as skilled as our friends, but we could probably get there. 

Be more polished, informed, and hard-working than your competition.One of the biggest complaints I've heard regarding RE professionals is lack of responsiveness.

Right now I am passively looking at properties, not yet ready to make any offers and polishing my deal evaluating skills.

I don't disagree with pro photos, but man, some of those pro's can really polish a turd.

Nothing like the polished, slick agents of southern CA.  

At the end of the day, if you are prudent in investment analysis, have a good BS meter for smooth talking salesman, and know a bit about real estate to be able to do some basic diligence on the polished presentation many syndicators put together, than you would likely be fine going this route.  

A paper trail allowing them to see what work was done while also seeing who did the work will deliver more polished products and accountability from all parties.

Scott, A couple of things here: 1) If this is true, and you will be getting $10M, then you should be cautious - alerting people to an amount of money this large can be dangerous, and you will get advice looking to separate that money from you from very hungry people, who will come off as very polished, but who can really do damage to your wealth.2) If you are coming into $10M all at once, then depending on the source, you will pay taxes on this.

Then just take that polished-sales comps function, and run every new listing in your area through it, and you get what I called the Daily Spread Analyzer in my Page 1 reply.As for how to do CMA/Comps, it's as easy as pulling up the neighborhood on RedFin (ideally 0.25-0.75mi max), adding filters to match similar BR/BTH/SF Ranges, and then sort by Highest Price to Lowest Price.

It looks much more polished and it’s very inexpensive.