Ive been browsing the forums and it seems a bit overwhelming as far as what to look for when buying one.

Never heard of Tranio until now, but their partners are very limited and after browsing I would have to conclude not at all aimed at investors. 

One time I made an inquiry as to why, zillow replied that they have humans doing checks on some listings to ensure they are not bogus, so there is a manual process somewhere in their data mining layer.Zillow has a better interface and the ability to see a map and visualize recent listings and close by sold listing is very nice.To me zillow.com has the better interface.Realtor.com has more updated information.One way I use zillow, is when I get an alert on a new listing from somewhere not zillow, I go to zillow, and most of the time, I can still see the pictures of the previous listing of that property, and that's very useful LOL.

The interface is just not as easy, you have to click too many times to achieve something simple.

Before trying something automatic like that, do a small number of inquiries in very rapid succession to see if they will put up a captcha or something similar to see if a human is doing the browsing or not.

Anyway I've just finished reading a book on foreclosures and have been browsing this site as well for information.

Absolutely not on time spent reseraching new acquisitions, especially not browsing zillow. 

They have a really good system, though the interface needs to be updated (and I understand that’s coming).

Hopefully your property condition reports are up to date, if not, schedule an inspection now and document the current condition of the property.Also, if you feel uncomfortable approaching the tenants and perhaps are in fear of them, then hire someone to do the interface for you.

I have browsed through ODesk and ELance but would love to have a recommendation of an individual or team who is capable.