Also when you are narrowed down to a specific property, leave the 50% rule behind and plug in actual/estimated numbers for PITI, PM (even if you self manage), vacancy, repairs, CapEx, admin overhead and see what your actual cash flow will be.  

My list eventually narrowed to a handful of markets at which point I started to try and make connections and find out who I knew where or who I could meet and talk with in these areas.

Gratefully I had a few markets to choose from and it narrowed down my search from "everywhere in the US" to a few markets.One thing I forgot to mention is I'm also looking only at metro areas with 250k+ population, so typically no tertiary markets.Ah, I like that metric.

I'm interested in all areas of investing (wholesaling, fix/flips, buy/hold even notes) , but to narrow my focus to get started I would like to begin with fix/flips to build capital to begin to branch out.

Fells Point, Canton and Federal Hill, all being close to the harbor, are older 'closer' neighborhoods with 10-foot wide rowhomes and narrow streets and alleys, but so much charm.  

The are rated A, B, and not-at-all.  

Long beach is a great b and c class area to be able to find an older building and value add to it.

We like it because we are able to narrow down our search by specific criteria such as bedroom count, equity %, last sales year, etc.

Or you can go with replacing that section with ABS & no-hub bands, or replacing all of it.   

I have narrowed my focus to Philadelphia, Oklahoma City or parts of Florida.