I drive a lot of miles, so I also had to factor in a car that can handle the miles.  

welcome to bp @Jaden Robyits time to get out start driving around and learn the market you wish to invest in and also join your local meetup group and start networking good luck

Drive the neighborhoods you are interested in, all times of the day to get a good feel for it.

The spill over is driving prices in BH way up...  

Driving for dollars in Tulsa, OK - how do you find owners of properties with just the address?

It's made it a little challenging to figure out what neighborhoods are good and which are not so good, but I've been driving around a lot to get a better feel for the area.My long term goal is passive income from rentals, and from my research Spartanburg is at about 50% renters to owners, so that sounds like a great place for buy and holds.

They have also removed all of the areas that sustained water damage on the second floor as well.

People buying these properties either have no children of school age or are willing to drive them to the private schools north of Downtown.  

Would deff utilize the driving for dollars and possibly narrowing that neighborhood down to specific homes with in the neighborhood based on the distressed atmosphere of the homes in the neighborhood.

Speaking generally, but I only look at 3/4 unit buildings (duplexes don't make sense), and in the grand scheme of things total number of legal bedrooms is the most important metric as that's ultimately what drives rent roll given that the majority of renters, at least in the gentrifying areas that I target, tend to be recent grads who are sharing an apartment and want to live in the "hot" part of town but can't afford Manhattan proper.