In my observation here in Santa Rosa, the first lots out of the gate that sold went for too high of a price. 

The lack of awareness of the risks is easily observed in posts written every day in these forums. 

As a resident of the Tennessee area, I have the advantage of observing its growth firsthand.

The water fell 3 floors, when I observed the incident my neighbor was attempting the sweep water out the back door.   

Interesting observations.

If you do choose to invest out of state, the best advice I could give you based on what I have observed running a local real estate group here for over a decade is build your own team.

But ...The first thing I observed was the replacement cost portion of the quote, was, IMO, less than what it will actually cost to demolish the remains of the existing structure, pay for any hazardous waste removal following a catastrophic loss, and actually pay to replace the property in the event of a total loss, even though I used the quote feature to increase the replacement cost value by 20% (the maximum it would allow).

I don't observe too many people buying multi-family in the Bay Area with our rent control laws but there are deals here. 

Apparently there is good money in writing reports:U.S.Department of EducationInstead of improving outcomes for students, here’s where taxpayer dollars were going:$3,000,000 contract to write a report that showed that prior reports were not read by anyone$1,400,000 contract to physically observe mailing and clerical operations (to watch people type)

I don't have such deep knowledge of Philly as this, but this outline certainly correlates with what I have observed.