Seeking solid rental investment anywhere in the U.S.

[Scott H.]

Hello, I'm looking to get into solid and reliable rental investment, I've been standing on the sidelines for a few years and now looking to get my feet wet. I was holding back because the numbers in my home state (Utah) are abysmal (At least $300-500k for a single family home that you'd be lucky to get $1000-1500/mo gross on, or around $600k-1.2m for a duplex that you'd be lucky to gross $2k/mo on). Therefore I'm now open to investing in other states that meet ideal investment opportunities.

My questions come down to 1) what are solid investment states/areas, 2) what are some ideal processes to purchase and manage a property out of state. Anyone with experience on any question please chime in.

Related to the investment area: I'm going based off this article I found here that got me thinking.
1) The article highlights a few cities in Florida (Orlando, Tampa, and Jacksonville) that look to have a reasonable amount of rental potential for purchase price, a growing market/equity, stability, etc. Also Dallas Texas. Are these basically the hottest areas in the nation? Anywhere better?
2) These areas look to favor single family as opposed to multi, is it worth the hassle of opting for an area with multi family (2-4 unit) to max out income per property? Or better to build up a portfolio of single family houses spread out?

Related to purchasing and managing from out of state (also newby questions):
1) Is it better and worth the effort to purchase a property with cash (in an attempt to get a lower purchase rate and faster closing) and then seek a mortgage afterwards? Or just to go the mortgage route in the first place? (Note: I do ultimately want property to be financed for leverage)
2) I'm assuming I should shop around for a management company for an area beforehand, what's a good way to find quality management and to determine fair/going rates?
3) I do plan on doing more research on an area beforehand, finding the "good"/upcoming parts of town, researching a fair value or a "deal" potential of a property and then spending about two weeks or so in the area to inspect properties and make offers... is this feasible for someone to do on their own or would I be better off working with some investment agency instead?