Location? Location? Location?

[Steve Volk]

First post to BP and I'm looking for input on where seasoned investors look for their investment properties in relation to where they live. I live in a small city in PA where the economy isn't great, jobs are few and all of the bad things that accompany these things are happening (crime, unemployment, low incomes, bad housing market etc). However, I'm two hours away from Pittsburgh and many parts of Pittsburgh are experiencing great growth and revitalization due to a lot of tech companies coming to town (Google for example) and some great colleges located in the city. I'd like to start investing in buy and hold properties but it seems as though I'd be crazy to buy anything where I live and not in Pittsburgh but I'm just afraid two hours is too far away from where I live to make these feasible. I'm a hands in kind of guy with a lot of construction and remodeling experience so I'd like to do the sweat equity work on my properties myself but the two hour one way travel time to the city would be a burden for sure. I know that there are property management companies that I could use but I'm afraid just getting started, this would be leaving money on the table on my end. I guess my question is, what's too far geographically from my residence to buy investment properties and still have some sort of life?