Obviously I think closer to the school the better, but are there certain neighborhoods that are better than others? 

When we stopped finding good deals about 5 or 6 years ago, we just started throwing every penny into paying down the principal across our fleet (paying off higher interest rates first, obviously).Looking back, we probably should have invested that money in the stock market because our interest payments were about 4 or 5%, and we could have doubled that with fairly safe stocks, but that's water under the bridge I guess. 

Specifically i found that we had to coordinate keys, the seller move out, the closing times, wiring instructions, and various other little details to get the deal done... being this was our first one, it was unclear who communicates all of these as there was obviously no agents or brokers involved.  

NYC is the obvious central point but the restrictions seem to be covering northern NJ and most of Westchester now.

you can obviously... be patient and just save up from your active income. 

Obviously it is a very different experience than walking the property in person so any advice would be extremely helpful and appreciated.

That period of time may be more or less relevant individual investors, but it is the obvious starting point for the discussion.

I am SURE anyone that suggested buying a new “primary home” said, or meant to say…”Which you will OBVIOUsLY move in to as your new primary for at least a year and you will NOT use it as a rental instead…” as that’s obviously mortgage fraud.

On the surface, the answer is obviously yes. 

Obviously you want the rental to cashflow, whether it is STR, MTR or LTR.