Getting agent referrals from people for someone who just has a very broad focus may not be useful.

The DC area has a HUGELY wide array of price points. 

The tenant attorney and tenant rep broker of course will try to do the opposite of what the landlord wants in ultimate guaranty security of lease, annual rental increases, and long term primary lease term.If you left it up to a tenant they would try 3 year primary lease, blocked rent increases so not annual, sales clause if not at certain level they can terminate or reduce rent, co-tenant anchor clauses, crazy broad restrictive uses for other units in the center, no personal guarantee, no disclosure of personal or business financials per the lease, set up a single entity remote LLC so they can bankrupt it for one location if things go bad, put a ROFR clause in the lease, incapacity clause where if tenant gets sick or hurt they can cancel lease, construction road widening clause where tenant can pay reduced rent while access is reduced to the center, unreasonable CAM cap clauses, etc.I can go on and on with the crap I have seen in leases for my clients buying retail centers where I am the broker.

So, house flipping several properties a year, would be aggregating my hours under one broad activity, instead of one specific property, right?

In other words, the map is drawn with broad strokes and has lots of inaccuracies. 

Jon Dorsey Andre Wilson Most of the books regarding notes will be very broad.

Barry Ratliff this is an interesting concept that will have a wide array of answers.

All the sudden there is that feeling that you might be making a mistake.The issue is that every deal will have down sides and risks and you have to look at them in broad daylight.

i'm looking for the forum's advice on the most efficient/effective way of weeding out properties. i'll be living in the property for at least a year. while i live there, i'll be living in it (so property can't be a complete rehab), fixing or improving the property, and then either flipping or renting out the property. i've looked at about 18 properties the past 3 weekends (i just started 3 weeks ago). the 18 properties were chosen based on 2 broad criteria: 1) based on pictures, description, and google street view, choose properties close to the metra (in illinois), in a location with a great high school (>=8 score), and in nice(r) neighborhood.2) look at zillow for an idea on property values in the neighborhood so that i'm not buying one of the most expensive houses in the neighborhood. if i feel the house i'm looking at is somewhat undervalued because it needs work and there's some room for me to flip, then house passes.this criteria has helped me weed out 100's of properties, but takes me a bit of time.i'm curious, is this a good start or are there other ways that the full time/professional investors use?

Of course that is a broad questions but I really appreciate your advice.