PGH has some great neighborhoods, but it also has some very, very rough neighborhoods (and some areas that are OK, but which may become rougher over the next 5-10 years).At its root, your question is whether you, as a first-time investor, should buy an OOS property in a C or D area because the property cashflows well on paper.This is one of the most commonly discussed topics on the forums; here’s my response taken from a previous thread:Usually, "new investor" and "out of state" don't mix.

The roots would still be under the house once the tree is removed.

These can collapse or roots can enter them.

Of course there are other factors such as age... if it was constructed with clay or cast iron tile then most likely tree roots have destroyed it, vacant or not.

I would make sure you have a tenant who is either employed or on the way to employment very quickly and who is rooted in the community. 

At the root of it, I believe you are undecided on your market because of the lack of knowledge on those markets you're looking at.

I have personally done both sides of things; ran PM biz grass-root's, and ran PM brokerage in a franchise system, a big BIG name one. 1 universal truth that stands in BOTH is your primary existence as a PM, franchisee or grass-root's, is that your a full-time "vanguard" of defending against the "WTF's" and in being a "Fire-Fighter" putting out the "fires" of the various "WTF's" that happen.     

I am curious as to what root causes have decreased the Chicago inventory more than other major cities. 

It has taken in water in the past however the root of that issue has hopefully been addressed adequately at this point. 

, you may find it easier to do distance investing vs in the same state.I have three doors locally (single fam and a single fam we turned to a duplex), but ultimately my husband and I are more focused on the long distance investing as it's hard to make numbers make sense out here in Utah.That said, there's amazing real estate groups and meetups out here, and if you do want to buy local, getting connected with those groups will be the best way to hear how we make deals work out here, or killer deals that are hitting the market or that might be off market deals.Best of luck to you as you start out on your real estate investing path, we're all here rooting for you!