Although I live in the Philadelphia suburbs, there are many semi rural areas surprisingly close to me.

Either one will surprise you if things go "wrong".

(Be sure on those income streams, no speculation.)Have a good size cash reserve (I had at one point $115K in cash reserves in an account, because I was so cautious about life's surprises, especially medical, I have since eased up on that and put more than half of that to work for me in multiple income streams) waiting in a high yield savings account, or in some state of liquidity, that you can draw from at any time for those unexpected surprise expenses, because sometimes when it rains, it pours.

I've never bid on an foreclosure auction before and I was surprised the bank would risk losing the property to tax default....but maybe they just want rid of it either way. 

Your post didn't sound like it came from a landlord with 25 years of experience, so I was pointing to the basics hoping it would motivate you to do some research.A quick Google search revealed numerous NJ banks that offer the convenience of opening accounts online.

BRRRRing out of state, there can be a lot of surprise costs. 

Agreed, it will impact the convenience and may strain with high-income tenants..  

Call a septic company and they will come with their truck, dig down so they can pop the top off, pump it out, and inspect it for you.If you've had contractors in the house, I wouldn't be surprised that things that shouldn't have been flushed were flushed.

like what kind of surprises can we see with REO like backed taxes, association etc?

It is my opinion that sponsorship groups that are struggling right now, but believe bringing pm in-house, are going to be in for a surprise when it doesn't solve all of the issues that they had hoped.