My advice which you should take with a mountainspoon  of salt ( as I said I am a newbie and have no experience at all) is to research your out of state market thoroughly, try and develop relationships on the ground with people who have a good track record and integrity ( PM, contractor, handyman etc) and to analyze your deals well to make sure the numbers work.

Markets I like: Sacramento, CA  -  Phoenix, AZ - Salt Lake City, UT - St.

I moved out here from Salt Lake City so some of the items you mention totally make sense to me, however these can all totally be mitigated. 

I’ve started to recently do that with my properties in Salt Lake City and im Expecting it to make a tremendous difference on the balance books at the end of the year.

Lots of exciting businesses getting started or expanding in Salt Lake and Utah Counties.  

I've been looking at a couple different areas - Denver, Salt Lake City, and Provo because they have low taxes, growth in population and jobs, and somewhat business friendly laws. 

I would like to begin investing where we live, Salt Lake City, and then would be happy to progress to other out of state options once I become more familiar and proficient with deal analysis.

So, for those deals, take cash-on-cash with a grain of salt. 

If I knew any Salt Lake wholesaling agents I would reference them so they see your post, but I don't know their names so hopefully they will catch the keywords.

All those numbers are all very rough, so take them with a grain of salt.