My cabin is also positioned in a weird spot marketing wise, it would not do well as a short term rental as it's not fancy or equipped for family and not large enough and not the right long distance views to compete with the higher end properties.  

Since I've heard the perils of being a long-distance investor, I want to start by investing locally and building a local supporting team.

The property is in a good blue collar neighborhood within walking distance to an excellent elementary school. 

Texas  and a few other markets however seem more viable but i'm a tad concerned about distance.

Since you're already acting as a long-distance landlord, I would expect you'd be comfortable doing so again.

Comparing the information, you're around a -2% population growth, -0.22% job growth and a home vacancy of 10%.http://www.city-data.com/city/Plymouth-Michigan.ht...http://www.semcog.org/data-and-maps/community-prof...http://www.bestplaces.net/economy/city/michigan/pl...Now, even though Plymouth looks to be fairly stagnant, I'm assuming you know the surrounding areas and can see if people who live there commute elsewhere to jobs and if land surrounding or within the city limits can even be developed for potential housing or business growth. 

I've been looking at properties within driving distance of me, because I want my first investment to be easily accessible.  

If you can, download the audio book and listen to it on your commute.

They will vary between location, distance to hydrants, fire department, age of home, cost to rebuild, materials, attached garage or not, etc.PMI?

But as for NJ ( Elizabeth, Patterson Jersey city area I live in Bayside queens and I eoulf like to be with in an hour and a 3 hour driving distance.