How high of a learning curve for investing out-of-state?

[Andrea Stewart]

I currently live in Northern CA, and we paid off our mortgage a year ago. We've since saved up ~$30K in cash at this point and are interested in purchasing investment property. I'm very familiar with our city (Sacramento), but I've looked into the up and coming neighborhoods where I thought we could get good deals. Even in those areas, running all the calculations, it doesn't seem a good bet for buy and hold at the moment, which is what I'm interested in.

The conventional wisdom seems to be to buy nearby. I've been browsing other markets, and I think we could do better elsewhere as far as cash flow.

Would it be a disaster to have our first investment property be out-of-state? How far-flung is too far-flung? Is it advisable to at least fly out and have a look around a prospective city?

I have friends in various places across the states, so I could pick some of their brains, if necessary. I love both researching and real estate, and I think I could get a decent feel for a place using various resources. Is that quite enough, though?