Thoughts and ideas on long distance expansion

[Austin Snow]

I'm in the process of selling the first rental property I purchased and will be netting quite a bit of profit thanks to the Denver markets increases over the last 5 years. Then, I'm going to buy a new primary residence and rent out our current primary so I'll still have one rental property. 

We're a single-income household, so my salary won't support buying a 3rd $350K house, but I'll have a fair amount of cash on-hand and want to invest it into another rental. 

The problem is, the only housing/rental markets I've ever known are Denver and Northern Colorado: Prices are high and increasing, rents are relatively high, and vacancy rates are low. 

I'd like to branch out and look at paying cash for another rental property in a market where prices aren't so high. For example, there are plenty of homes for sale in the Tampa/St. Petersburg market around the 100K range. 

I realize that there is a lot of legwork and homework required for this kind of thing, but I'm curious what experiences other folks have had in a similar situation? Is it overly difficult to find the "right area" when you're evaluating and buying from long distance? Any tips on general areas/states/population centers (cities)?