I am in Ocala and we are a hot spot for investors right now too but its still doable to buy here and cash flow.

if you have experience in real estate - yes its doable because you anticipate and are well prepared for what is involved with it, regardless of whether you decide to handle it yourself or hire a trusted team to help.If this is your first investment property, I would not recommend you to start with an out of state property. 

Interest rates are not going to be a main factor anytime soon so i would not worry about that too much.The numbers you are looking for (160K) is not doable in NYC right now on duplexs.

Once you have that information, you will be in a position to know if it's doable. 

Doing your own marketing and working with wholesalers and investor/agents will yield plenty of good deals to choose from.Small mortgages are doable, but as you stated, banks are little more reluctant to do them, although I have not run into any that will say "no" out right. 

I have heard $250-300/ft is definitely doable in peninsula and south bay.

My perspective is if the lower rents are doable then going forward should be favorable.  

Go FHA and use that home as my current address, while essentially going back and forth between the two homes (risky, but I do work form home so this is doable).

. $150k is a bit tough, but $180K is still doable in 78745 which is trending well.

I still consider myself a newbie in investing but perhaps have a little more experience in RE that make me think is worth spending the time learning Notes for the upside of exiting if a loan gets refinanced every 5-7 years (get a bigger return) and other exit strategies (Evaluating NPN Exit Strategies) look doable and I really like the opportunity to offer a Loan Modification that Banks are not willing to do.