Also, what about the surrounding area that the property is located?  

We are interested in flipping but are split on rentals as I feel it would help my wife to be able to quit(she drives an hour to work) sooner.  

During the latest and greatest podcast featuring Jay Papasan, Jay brought up an interesting point made by Trump that he learned nothing when the markets were good and everything in down markets (I'm sure I butchered the quote, but I was driving and wasn't able to write it down!).

So far I have a list (500) of absentee owners I purchased from list source, and a list of 80+ homes that I got from driving for dollars.

And hey, it is a free resource that you can listen to while you commute or drive around.I wish you all the best with your new venture.

I definitely plan to drive around the neighborhood and take a look at the property.

Off market stuff, realtors, driving around, they come to me.

Then work on studying what you want to focus on for your future investments and start studying everything about it and surround yourself with people who are like minded and experienced.

Build back links and drive traffic to it (bigger pockets is a good back link).

If it was within driving distance I would go for sure!