Joe I see this as highly regional.. when we were flipping in Dallas almost all appraisals came in low and we had to negotiate.. it was frustrating and since the homes were FHA buyers they no had any more money to make up the delta.. and with the uber high tax's there you just have to let them go and make less or break even on the flip.. we just were not efficient enough to compete there.In Oregon and Charleston were we do true NEW construction for retail in the 450 to 2 million price points.. we have not had one appraisal come in low.. they come in at our sales number.. and this last community we built.. the exact same house we built the year before on the same size lots we sold for 75k more.. and they still appraised.. that's good appraisers keeping up with rising markets.. in Texas it was not that way the appraiser were not tracking the rising market like they should have.For the average homeowner to use this strategy could lead to some frustration of making offers paying for inspections and appraisals and then trying to negotiate down only to have a sale fail and be out 1k or more and the time involved..

I'm sure you can connect with investors in the region of the property and get their take on the area or maybe even do a drive by.

I was going to suggest at your purchase price you might also look into unsecured loans from say Marcus by Goldman Sachs , or if your credit isn't quite good enough for them you can try Lending Club, or loan depot they all do unsecured loans and some will do them with less than perfect credit.Another option is one I'm using now just a construction loan, with a regional bank here.. they are loaning me 60k for a home 30k purchase and 30 for repairs/personal debt.. to lower my debt to income ratio..

ya there were many Bay Area investors who bought 4 plex's through LInda Gurcheck in PHX who learned that one the hard way when the building of new subdivisions came to a screeching halt in 08 to 2012 and many of those clients had 100% vacancies on a 4 plex for year or more.these sold at the peak these 4 plexs for 300 to 350k  in 2010 I could buy them same exact building vacant of course for under 100k each.it is a very big misnomer to think that rentals cannot go vacant.. and of course this is HUGELY regional.. and current economics plays a big factor.

I'm looking to connect with Real Estate pro's in or near Cincinnati, OH and maybe in the same region.

I personally found this to be a great idea but wanted to here other people's opinion to get a feel for potential regional differences across the states. 

You'll want to re-screen the renters and issue them a lease w/ an appropriate rent for your region.

You should be fine to do this, but when you look for financing you will likely need to go to a local/regional bank or credit union not a big national bank.

And then it comes down to regions  some regions you can do the landlording gig. look at all these 30 somethings that have built up nice portfolios mainly in the mid west.. you can do that there when your price points are where they are at basically the cost of new cars. however that becomes much more difficult in the coast markets.. and those folks can also buy a nice home to live on for 200k  were in Silicon valley its 2 million  !! 

The other thing I gleaned from this is its highly regionalized.. areas of older stock HIGH % of rentals wholesaling was much more viable.. areas of stability and owner occ and no boarded up homes much tougher.