So - somewhere 2 hours away, or somewhere you like to vacation in, or where all your family lives, or where you plan to move someday.Too many people are trying to do exactly what you're doing - pick a market based on a formula - and they end up buying a random 'cheap' property thousands of miles away, turn it over to people they've never met or even spoken to, and then... lose money.  

One thing to be aware of is the FHA multifamily self-sufficiency calculation which determines if a property can generate enough rental income to cover its mortgage payments.

1.Zoning and Land UseUnrestricted Areas & Mobile Homes:How can I determine if a piece of land is in an unrestricted area or suitable for placing a mobile home?

This will give you a great starting point in determining rent for your underwriting! 

Pick one that is improving, homes being renovated and flipped, vacant storefronts being turned into cool coffee shops etc.Good luck.

That will determine if you could sell it and use the money to buy a single family home or would need to take out a mortgage. 

We will shop for used appliances where we can when we need one… or pick up used cabinets if we can, or search eBay for something smaller,  but going to the extreme of personally shipping something big in internationally for one-off renovation needs seems like a stretch of reasonable.Just like you mention, the number of unknowns would not seem to be worth it to me.Just my 2 cents.Randy  

3: I have no idea how to determine how much to borrow verses pay cash?

Does the market there pick up more in the spring as other markets do? 

If I would have used competent management, the manager that I picked and vetted, then it would have cash flowed, assuming they could have filled the vacancies.The big lesson I learned is that the property manager selected can make or break a deal.