Working in partnership with an agent who understands these types of investments can be invaluable when identifying properties.

The only downside might be that a broker could help you identify components with the deal that you might not recognize, just because of their vast experience in transactions.

Those CRMs may be just fine for what I'm doing, but before I pull the trigger on one of them, I figured I'd ask the experts :)Here's a partial list of what I'm doing and how I'd like to do it:1) I am currently identifying properties using Reonomy.  

In trying to identify good areas,fertile flipping ground in Fairfax County, VA and Prince George's County, MD, I've found a handful of "Recently Sold" properties on Zillow, where homes sold, presumably off market, for significantly less than retail averages, and I'm wondering if these records are accurate, or if information maybe gets inaccurately ingested sometimes.   

I'm also struggling with exactly how to evaluate and identify a strong market with data to back up the conclusions. 

We could identify your financial goals match them to your wants/needs and guide you through buying based on what makes sense. 

If you want an agent to help you identify residential properties suitable as investments, be sure to find agents who themselves are experienced investors (either as landlords, flippers, or developers).I can't tell you how many agents send me "investment" deals that make absolutely ZERO financial sense except as a source of commissions for them.

I identified Memphis as having good price-to-rent ratios for the purpose of cashflowing rental properties (single family 3 bedrooms), this table below shows these price-to-rent ratios for other metropolitan areas:The parameters within Memphis are looking for zip codes with growing population with ok income that have a good percentage of renters in the area. 

Most lenders will identify that you are an investor and are using owner occupied rules, rates and down payment to buyand acquire investment properties.If you are leaving 1 primary and buying another you have to typically provide a very strong and compelling reason for moving into the new property owner occupied or you likely will have trouble getting the owner occupied financing.

In my opinion, identifying which house to flip is far down on the list of priorities when venturing into this space.