Where to buy: city or small town

[Vilfreda Hoagland]

I'm ready to buy a rental property, but I keep flip flopping on where to focus.  I live in Fort Worth and I'm looking close by so I can manage it.  The issue is what's available near me is higher priced.  I want something that is ready to go and will only require minor stuff.  Getting a more expensive place would use up almost all my savings for the down and closing. However, there are properties an hour or two away that are cheaper so I wouldn't use up all my savings and still produce cash flow. But, I think they would be harder to rent and rents would be much lower than what I can get for the properties in FW. The house I choose with affect the loan I can get so I need to decide.  

For those of you who have experience in smaller towns or lower rents do you recommend staying closer to the city where houses will appreciate faster and rents will be higher but will use up all my savings or go outside the city where houses will be cheaper and I can keep some of my savings but rents will be lower and maybe houses will not appreciate as fast?