First time investing outside my local area.

[Barak Schafer]

Hello, BP

This will be my first home purchase ever.  I am looking into buying in the Boise area (I want to move there when I leave the military and want to start investing now). Because I am in the military, I would need pretty much all services to be over phone and email.  My basic question is how difficult is this? Im looking at the sub 200,000 range. I have 10,000 for closing costs and 10,000 as an emergency fund for repairs on the house. I would be doing a conventional loan with 20% down. I want a turn key house as I would not be able to oversee any repairs. 

I keep hearing about networking, but am not able to do that being stationed elsewhere. are there places I can start talking to investors, agents, and Property managers online?

How hard is it to find a good property manager? I have seen some sponsored ads on here but dont really know how much they have been vetted. 

What is the best way of analyzing a market? So far, I have just looked at Realtor and looked ar what houses are selling for vs what they are renting for in a certain neighborhood, but I know the markets are more nuanced than that and Realtor is only so reliable. 

I am still researching all of this. I just bought the ultimate beginners guide to real estate but have not had a chance to read it yet. I am still working through the BP podcasts as well. 

If anyone has any advice, I would greatly appreciate it. Or better yet, if anyone is in the Boise area, I'd love to hear from you.  

Thank you all in advance for the help.

Barak