Obviously you wouldn't want to  do this with 20 homes but narrow it down to a few properties. 

If you are looking into land deals for other states I would suggest narrowing down your search for certain cities and put the location of your question in those.

I'm definitely going to be investing in Ohio, but I'm trying to narrow on what neighborhood to get my first property in.

If I were you, I'd plan a visit and narrow down the neighborhoods you're interested in and get with an agent who knows the city very well to guide you on the purchase.

By the time you go through the list and check out the properties yourself to narrow that list that leaves VERY little time to get title searches complete.

Typically you would use an application to narrow down the applicants to those that pass your criteria so you are only having the most qualified applicants complete the process on SmartMove.  

Once you narrow down the area, spend more time hanging out around it (lunch, dinner, walks...). 

The best way to get started is to narrow down your focus.

It will not produce as many results with such a narrow target property, but it is another method to generate potential deals.

I would recommend if you are starting out, either narrow down your definition of where and the type of property you want to invest and find the investor to fund it, or the type of investor you're looking for then seek the properties they will invest in.