I am also starting to scout out some deals up there. 

If you were to flip a house, the best thing to do is to scout your competitors.

This one is actually in my neighborhood and I've done drive by and walk bys many times at different times and days - but I would only do ones I've scouted pretty extensively!

While you are scouting deals with brokers/realtors, you would be wise to associate with and work closely with an experienced rehab contractor to give you an honest assessment of what it would take/cost to make the repairs and an estimate of what you could expect to see, in terms of financial returns, for your efforts.  

It should be deductible if you're making the trip for business (scouting the market) 

In all seriousness, you should have a pre-approval and when you scout for properties make sure you understand the market you're looking at.

We are moving to the area this July, and would like to start scouting the area, determining criteria, etc.  

I would totally scout properties and crunch the numbers to understand how they work, but would save up first, or syndicate a deal!

It is actually most beneficial if you have some examples of properties you have already scouted online. 

One trick I used was when i was moving into an area, scout existing PMs to see what advertising / screening methods they were using for their tenants .