I've arrived at the point where I just don't believe the sales pitches unless I talk with another agent who is seeing actual results.Sign on with a brokerage that has all the tech tools you need. 

A CRM would probably be a better idea, but I've never found one I liked.

My main motivation for the membership was probably for the tools, but I think that will come as I get closer to being ready to really start researching my first deal. 

You can buy FIVE million dollar properties ($200k down on each)+5% in LTV = ANOTHER MILLION DOLLAR PROPERTYHowever, Lenders love LOWER LTVs because the main tool to protect themselves if someone defaults on their loan (stops paying) is to foreclose on the property & take ownership.

Also though, I've reached out to John Bianchi (The AirBnB Data Guy and also the head of data for Techvestor) and I got his new analytics tool that he developed so that I can pull up actual STR data for any market. 

It can be a powerful tool for an investor.

Is that a homegrown tool that you have worked on?

The benefit that this can create for you (with a couple downloads to excel) is an ongoing cash flow forecasting tool and a comparison of what you thought your cash flow should be to what it actually was.

Any suggestions on CRM software to help us 1.) organize our buyers list and 2.) can send emails and text blasts about particular deals we need to move to specific groups of buyers?

Trulia is a pretty decent source for crime rates so you should use that tool also.