For me personally, our STR and our little inn provide more than half my family's income so I feel I have a fiduciary duty to my wife and kids to maximize that. 

The biggest mistake I see out of state investors make is relying on others too much for direction and guidance instead of doing their own due diligence and building their own team that they actually meet and interviewRelying on one person who alleges that they have a 'team' built already that you can use as well can be a costly mistake.

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.

It was a personal referral, received a credit at closing for renovations as well How did you finance this deal?

Personally, I'd start looking in markets you're familiar with, similar to what you said in your post.

@Shawn Questa I agree with you that there could be some opportunity here, but personally, with that little equity in the property, I'd wait for the pre-foreclosure process to start and  perhaps you can do a short sale (though I don't know the details on how that's handled in TX).

I'm a passive investor and these properties are in a different state than I reside in so I'm not there in person often. 

I personally don't know of their group but figured id link that article since i remember reading it and the name clicked. 

Personally I would want to manage the rental myself at least in the beginning to make sure you get good ratings.

Do you think using lexisnexis would work for skiptracing to find a person's phone number?