Being an expert in an area will help you take the guess work out of your offers and enable you to identify deals quickly. 

Most real estate agents are not investors, and it's up to you as the investor to be able to identify which deals are good and which deals are not good.  

I would continue to pursue these leads by trying to identify the owners. 

We thought this would be a good way to get to know the area we are interested in and identify which houses look neglected/empty.

If you are referring to a 1031, AKA Starker, you MUST consult a CPA before you do anything, generally you have 3 months, you must initiate the 1031 before you sell your properties, and you must identify like kind properties, and close your purchase within 3 months of selling the others, AND you can't take out any money, or ever touch any of the funds from your sale, you will need a QI to hold the funds.

You also need to understand and identify all the numbers if you haven't thoroughly done this: mortgage, taxes, insurance, CAPX, rent, turnover, repairs, title insurance, future closing costs, etc.

From there, you will be able to identify borrowers who are at risk of losing their homes.Second, all bank owned properties are listed on the MLS.  

HUD is very picky about entity buyers, they take time to vet them thoroughly to identify everyone involved and make sure there's no collusion taking place in federal housing sales.

I grew up in the area and though I don't live there anymore, know its a great rental market and want to expand.I have taken the time to go through the tax records on the streets I know I want to buy and identify all of the absentee owners of multi-families (2-4 units).  

I have been concentrating on value-added real estate investment and would like to learn more about opportunistic real estate investment and experience to identify, select and acquire real estate that help create a diversified portfolio with strong risk-adjusted returns.