Looking to buy and hold real estate. Help a newbie out? :)

[Arley Collado]

Greetings all! 

Long story short: I'm highly interested in pursuing the buy and hold route as a real estate investor, however, trying to buy in my own backyard (Orange County, CA) is a bit of a challenge due to the insane housing costs here. With that being said, I have turned my attention to other areas across the country in search of properties that I can take down without shelling out $500k for it. 

For those of you who hold rental properties (SFR, multi-family, etc.) in parts across the country, what advice would you give to someone like me looking to pursue this route? I have about $20,000 liquid that I can tap into from savings, which I would use a portion for the down payment, and my credit score is 710-714 so I'm not opposed to obtaining financing through a local bank or credit union for financing.

Also, what additional books, materials, or resources would you recommend that I could read to get myself more familiarized with this form of real estate investing? I know these questions have been asked over and over again in these forums so I apologize in advance for the redundancies.

Looking forward to connecting and leveraging knowledge with all of you!

Happy investing!

-Arley