Identifying a market for rehab/rental properties - Long distance

[Ryan Carter]

Hi everyone, my name is Ryan. I am a mechanical engineer in the product design business and am looking to begin my rental property investing business in the next 8-12 months. I plan to start with single family homes (ARV: >$80k) in need of $20k-30k rehabs. I will rehab, rent, and hold for long term. I also will be doing this from long distance as I live in southern California where housing prices are through the roof.

My question is: How do I identify a market to begin searching for properties in? Is there a successful strategy for this other than jumping on zillow and blindly throwing a dart on map?