Investing in Single Family home rentals...

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Hi,

First of all I'm about as new to real estate as you can get. Is investing in single family home rentals a waste of time? I've always been interested in it but just never had the motivation. I live in San Diego so purchasing a home with the intent of making it a rental doesn't seem to work so well out here as the price of real estate is still extremely high while rent isn't.
So I was thinking that maybe I could find an area out of state where I could basically purchase a house with the intent of renting it out while building equity and maybe even producing a couple hundred bucks a month in cash flow. This is probably the most basic form of a real estate investment there is but I feel like it's an easy way to get started. About 8 months ago I made a post about Biloxi MS but no one seemed to have any opinions on it. After doing more research I'm still convinced that the area will experience growth over the next few years. I'm thinking about actually taking a quick trip out there to scope out the particular area I'm interested in and maybe look for some deals. I figure if I pick something up in the 150k range I can probably rent it out for 1200-1300 which should cover mortgage, management, taxes, insurance, etc. I'm also considering some pre-construction projects in the high 100s but I have to see if the math works out on those.
The only thing I'm sort of confused about is the actual buying process. About the only thing I have in place at the moment is financing. I'd prefer not to use an agent as I'll be doing the scouting myself. I guess what I'm confused about is the actual offer. Is there some place I can get sample offers or templates or something that can be modified slightly depending on the conditions I want to set for this particular property? Sorry if this sounds ridiculous but I've just never been exposed to the process first hand. Furthermore, at what point do I start looking for an escrow/title service? Should I have that in place before creating the offer? My goal with this whole thing is to build some equity while renting out the property and maybe make a couple hundred bucks a month. Thanks in advance for any comments or opinions.