The Raleigh market may have increased by 40% after the Apple announcement, but it wasn't because of Apple, at least not solely.

I can get 5 times as many deals without increasing my budget.

Rents have increased significantly over the past few years.  

Now as I stated I'm not a agent but I do feel confident in this here friend. 

That does not require employment or job seasoning instead it uses the rents to qualify and you can take out up to 80% LTV cash.Use the cash to put down on the next 1-2 or more properties as long as the other properties are debt servicing themselves it opens up more opportuities to buy more future assets and increase your passice income.  

Buyers usually want to purchase on today’s value while sellers often want to use future potential of the property (“current rents are below market” or “room to build an additional property”, etc) to increase the purchase price or likelihood of a sale.

However, I enjoy the more operational side of flips and would like to grow my business out of state to increase flipping volume and have less competition in finding deals.

@John Perkins Help you find lenders that can increase your profitability on your projects and perhaps help you scale!

I've heard horror stories that it's usually impossible due to the "burden placed on the municipality" but could really never understand what that burden was... most people living in those units wouldn't be using the school systems so aside from maybe an increased volume in emergency medical situations I can not understand that statement? 

Since you mentioned REI Hub, I worked with REI Hub in the past and they had the same connection issues but their CEO is usually good about making quick updates to create a better user experience.That being said, there is no perfect solution out there regarding bank feed connections so I'd go with one you know and ensure the accounts are linked on a weekly basis to be confident every transaction is flowing through without interruptions.