Personally, I focus on mobile home parks, and although I have acquired thousands of properties across several other asset classes, the reason why I narrowed my focus to MHP is due their intrinsic recession resistant behavior. 

I narrowed my search to a specific area and i did visit before i started submitting offers.

We've narrowed down our search to two communities. 

Here are some of my personal thoughts:  1) Looks like you've already analyzed and narrowed down some markets.

That will help you narrow down the mentors you need. 

Narrow that search to properties sold in the last 4-6 months.

If Real Estate is a reflection of supply and demand, the opportunity for investment might be narrower over the long term.

How to narrow down the list? 

Narrowed it down to the 75 most populated markets. 

I'd recommend you narrow your focus just a tad to a projected return, then hone that to a market and then neighborhood.Regarding the pace of sales - I'd say that the good properties fly off the market with multiple offers...the turds remain turds and sit for 90+ days as the price continues to drop.