I'm looking at a house but its 5.6 miles away from the airport, just barely south of the flight path.  

If you cannot afford the $200 - $800 for a flight, you certainly cannot afford to invest there.

Ps. ...my wife's maiden name was Sipe!

Others like weather, flight risk of contractors on projects without performance bonds, event risk from the national economy (think mortgage crisis or war with Russia), interest rate risk, etc.  

I think right now you could do better in the Midwest or Texas.However Tempe is a fairly close flight, and you might still have somewhat of a network here that could be helpful.

But recapture is a ***** but they are fun to use and you are totally passive you put it on the flight line at the local FBO  and use it to go to Vegas or Disney world or any other neat trip you may wish to take...

I'very loved buildings since I was little and thanks to HGTV the addiction took flight in 2003!

As A Canadian that started investing in vacation real estate far from home (3hours flight away), it is imperative that you realize that you cannot micromanage the investment and expect stellar results in either terms of revenue and reviews.

The maintenance person has their own code, the housekeepers have their own code, we can issue a one-time code for something like an appliance delivery -- its great.The first time you have a guest flight delayed and have to wait until late at night to have them 'video in' to you and get access, you might rethink the video access part.

We both have income from W-2 jobs but my wife is a flight attendant and only works about 100 hours a month - the rest of her time is spent actively looking for properties & managing my parents rental which my parents have almost zero involvement in.