Fortunately, they should and usually do have local contractors in the area that they turn to for maintenance. 

Also remember to check your local laws.  

Local market economic conditions. 

Any advice for older listings that dont do well in displaying in the top of local property searches. 

If you can house hack a duplex / triplex / quad locally, I highly suggest it.

Are you looking to exchange into a local property or out of state?

As long as the property generates enough cash flow, you may qualify based on the asset alone.Another route is to explore portfolio loans from local banks or credit unions.

I used to live in Peoria & attended GCC.

EXAMPLE: a local HC has a single comcast email address for their entire office - mysteriously, they seem to be always losing emails and asking us to resend multiple times.The good news is they finally increased their max rental amounts a few years ago, so they are now more competitive. 

I work as an acquisitions associate with BPG Holdings, a local real estate investment fund in Alexandria, and also work as a realtor for our fund's brokerage team, assisting clients with investment properties in the D.C. metro area.I've recently created a series of reports focused on the city of Alexandria and its sub-market development prospects, which I believe alongside other macro trends will make the city an amazing buy-and-hold investment for real estate investors.