As a Banker my advice is to always have several conversations prior to and be very transparent with your Banker or Loan officer.You can use real estate to position yourself into a better or bigger home buts is like chess there are rules and you have to know in advance your next few moves. 

She is an incredible investor friendly agent down there that knows her stuff better than most. 

Building your core-4 will also be fundamental to investing out-of-state, I'd recommend reading this article by David Greene: https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/core-four-real-estate-tea...The Midwest markets present some good opportunities for investors with cheaper price points, lower taxes and a lot of them being landlord-friendly as well.

For both short- and mid-term investors, the market's diversity and relatively lower entry costs make it an attractive option.FYI - Philadelphia has a tenant-friendly legal environment, which can present certain challenges for landlords

Some are very investor friendly. 

I was a big user of Buildium and used them for almost four years.

These are some options that I am considering. 1) Getting an LLC and a Joint Venture agreement to partner with a long time friend of mine but somehow separate our business from our individual marriages?

If you are interested add me as a friend on here and we can connect.

Rather than looking at "good" areas, I'd ask you what cities/metro areas you like to visit or where you already have family or friends that live there.

The high taxes are problematic but Texas is far more landlord and business-friendly than CA, NY and most other states.