Jay, I have not seen a hire first hand but I had several relo clients tell me the same thing: they moved because of the smoke, not because of the fire.

So outsourcing some degree of property mgmt would be a must... but the deal won't work paying a local property manager a large % of my revenue...Instead, I would set up my "boots on the ground" (cleaners, handyman), and would need an offshore virtual assistant to manage guests and coordination of my local team. 

What I would do is hire a licensed contractor for this work. 

You could set up a PM LLC that both of you would "Hire" to manage your tenants.

I would just a hire a good PM and let them handle everything.

I think many can be easily overcome like finding an attorney and contractors in the area, but the most interesting challenge I can think of is how to hire someone to deliver late payment notices one day a month.

For out-of-state networking, I'd focus on engaging regularly in BP forums (like you're doing now), joining virtual meetups in your target markets, and connecting with active BP members who consistently provide value here. 

We are also entrepreneurs who have run a successful marketing firm since 2011, so we have experience building a business from scratch, hiring, marketing, building and leading teams, high-level negotiating, etc. 

You can hire a RE lawyer to oversee my  side of the contract if I really need to.

They even have very tight rules as to what our assistants can and can't do, such as if I were to hire a non-licensed secretary or whatever.