If youre willing to spend a little money, use listsource to pull recent absentee owner purchases for the past 6 months.

Spend at least 6 months to a year educating yourself about real estate investment.  

I have spend 30 years in the construction field (mostly on the mechanical side HVAC) but have a pretty good sense of building structures.

Michele, yes, I spend a lot of my drive time listening to podcasts.

I have spend almost the past year reading and studying anything and everything I can find.  

and buyers willing to spend more on updated homes (that's a buy and flip). 

Not to mention all the time you will spend dealing with the HOA board.  

In 1988, Michael Weiss, in his fascinating book The Clustering of America, introduced the idea that neighborhoods can be grouped in terms of lifestyles, consumer spending, demographics, and socioeconomic variables.

I have been spending every free moment educating myself about real estate investing through the Bigger Pockets website and related materials.  

Yes, the MLS was one of the things that I thought might be an advantage but I really don't think I/we'll be spending our time waiting to jump at the next property that comes along.