Go into the process knowing there will be bumps in the road because you are taking the road less traveled, but in the end it will be worth it because you will have a house with most of, if not all of the deferred maintenance taken care of, favorable financing terms, and a little equity as an icing on the cakeLast thing is if you can work with a lender, 203k consultant, and contractor that have worked together successfully on deals together try your best to do so.

(traveling, moving out of state, etc.)To be clear, I'm NOT ASKING what advice you would give to them. 

I travel for work a lot on the west coast and have thought about renting an apartment there for convenience.

I found that Traveler's Insurance will do a replacement cost policy, but they are able to modify it down to what you want your coverage to be.

I want to travel the world.

And only be able to take the 121 exclusion as we have plans to sell our home and will be in between homes for a bit( traveling around the country in 45ft motorhome with family for the next year).

I look at Population & Job Growth, what major Industries/ Employers are in the market, major Airports ease of traveling from NYC to my new market, traveling costs etc, Purchase price to rent ratio I follow the 1% rule but in hot markets it gets harder to find.Markets depends on what you are looking for, if you want positive cash flow every there are a lot of markets that can accomplish this.

Maybe hire a property manager or someone off of Craigslist to travel to the park to ask around.

You can get rid of condition issues in a couple weeks, but you will probably never get rid of a 90 minute travel time.Unfortunately my market is pretty ridiculous right now, so any "local" stuff I'm doing is really out on the fringe. 

Safe travels