She is my wife and an excellent investment property realtor.

Would love to chat all things RE and make some connections before our big move and hopefully develop that into a working relationship that benefits both parties in the near future.Thanks for your time.

Build relationships in the Houston area as these will help you tremendously. 

From what I’ve gathered it’s highly likely the situation is an abusive relationship and she being  controlled by this man.  

yes understand but I already have a relationship with the listing agent as my buyers agent.

I live in Los Angeles where properties are out of my reach so I started to look at Cleveland and then it went to Memphis then to Columbus then to Palm Springs and Euclid on top of establishing relationships with agents in each city. 

Do I want to build a working relationship and transition into bigger deals down the road and use these smaller ones to test out the waters?

Build relationships with active local investors (do your due diligence on them...lots of wannabe's out there).

You have to find another source-either a distressed property, something you can improve and up the value to another level, or perhaps develop relationships with brokers and wholesalers who will bring a deal to you because they know you as someone who has the ability to close.

@Alex Deacon excellent!