It is critical that we set our rent rate competitively to secure a tenant within a couple weeks.

He is now on our forever team because getting the loan is critical but also because of the extra service he has provided us.  

Knowing a good deal when you see it is a critical and underrated skill-it’s everything in RE investing. 3% or 5% down conventional is much easier to get accepted than FHA, so do consider those!

If I were to choose to invest out of state, what are the critical things I need to be aware of?

The net property investment is usually the down payment — which is the property’s cost minus the amount you borrowed.It’s a simple formula, but it’s critical to know how to calculate cash-on-cash return in order to be a successful investor.

Find a smart good local agent and then make a  long-term partnership is critical. 

Sounds like you're trying to gain traction using short term gains to get critical mass to buy a hold property. 

We cannot arbitrarily increase the rent too in NJ, we wud have let them bring it if they cud compensate us in increased rent.We did call them few days ago to try to smooth things out but they just went on a rant and they didn't let us talk, the call went for about 2.5 hours, and they started arbitrarily criticizing everything about us even though we have been very accommodating,  responsive and helped them with references.

I'm still new, and love criticism as long as I'm learning from it!!

The app itself is also critical to the operation!