But I do drive the houses a few times per year just to make sure our homes are still standing!!! 

I'm just throwing around the idea as I actually have time to drive for dollars and I have time to market and write hand written notes and keeping a few deals a year to flip would be awesome as well-- without doing all of the research now, is looking more into the idea a good idea? 

Not ruling out driving to Sacramento or  San Francisco to find great prices!

Personally I prefer urban areas if the numbers work since you often have less buyer competition...which will always drive the price up...sometimes even higher than the list price, which is already high in most cases.

I live in Austin, and am interested in all deals within 2.5 hours of drive time (like San Antonio and Waco), considering Houston as well.  

I'm about to start my direct mail campaign to both absentee owners list & a driving for dollars list.

Why not drive over to Whiting, Indiana one day and open up a mailbox for $75, and then you can file LLCs there (also $50) for a fraction of the cost.

That ratio is what should help drive profits.

Manfred Schaefer Kevin Stein Depending on the weekend I would drive down from Iron Mountain.

This way, you'll get regular emails of the latest listings that come available on the MLS. 4: Using the MLS listings as a guide, your next step would be to drive through some of these zipcodes to find stuff that isn't listed on the MLS but are listed by various sellers.Yes, quite a bit of work but if you're serious about finding something in the metro area, you can.