Regarding appliances, I had to personally drive 5 hours to get the refrigerator my wife wanted, and our range only made it thank to my wife's social media presence and one of her followers from across the country helping us by ordering it (it was only available for local delivery) and repackaging it for Fedex freight across the US.  

Limited supply and low interest rates are driving home prices up.

What are some tips for driving for dollars?

I am just getting started in RE, I have never bought a property or invested any money into RE yet, but have an eagerness and drive to learn all I can about the topic and soak in new info to grow and start soon.

My goal was to go Driving For Dollars and get a list of 400 vacant/distressed properties.

I would be ready to have supporting data as to the necessity of them and be sure to include exterior cameras as well, not only in the common drive/entry area, but along the rear permeameter as well- otherwise it seems as if spying on the interior might be miscommunicated as the goal, and if truly for security, you would be covering all points of entry without exterior cameras along all exterior walls. 

If you do find one in KC I would be interested in making the drive up.

Once licensed and insta-recruited by one of the dozens of brokerages that will spam you with glowing offers upon passing the exam, you'll bring your checkbook to your first day on the "job" and drive home about $2,000 poorer from all the required investments, fees, advances to transaction coordinators, MLS membership, etc. 

No more than 1 mile away if possible.  2 miles maximum if there are simply no comps, but that can drive you into a very non-comparable neighborhood. 

They'll be able to actually drive out and see properties themselves and have likely already developed long term relationships from living there for a number of years.