The question is mostly a personal financial planning question and it depends on your preference and what balance of risk and access you'd like and would be comfortable with.

Many OOS investors pick one market to master before expanding.Spending the next few months learning and analyzing deals is a great plan!

I would probably work with an attorney in North Carolina (or wherever you live) to do some estate planning since you do have young kids.

Nor can they see any construction plans to assess true value.

I position my inspections as 'planning for future repairs/improvements' which mitigates that whole 'he's here to get my security deposit' mindset.And, I would rather have the tenant with me than to have him later claim that something was broken during the inspection.  

@Jacob HavlovickBigger Pockets is a great place to find a real estate tax accountant.A good real estate accountant can save you thousands of dollars by leveraging entity selection and formation, tax deductions, cost segregations, bonus depreciation and tax planning.I recommend finding an accountant who specializes in real estate taxation, business taxation, financial planning and tax planning.You may want to consider working with your accountant remotely to expand your options.I would also recommend looking for a accountant willing to work with you throughout the year.

- You can buy using FHA 203(k) loan which allows you to finance repairs into the purchase mortgage.If you find you like being a landlord, you can BRRRR a property every year.You can also start BRRRing rentals w/o planning to live in them.

I am pretty new myself to real estate investing but my plan is to own many LTRs .

You have a solid plan and it's working great!

What are your investment plans moving forward?