Your job is to remain fit, physically and mentally, and to avoid those things that can decay the years of hard work you've put into your sport. 

Your costs for doing it this way will be the loan costs and interest payments, so I would think about a way to counteract that with some of the cash leftover.Also, as a new rental property owner, you may not be aware of the potential issues that can spring up, even on a recently remodeled property.

If we're not growing we're slowly decaying.

There's still hundreds of acres of empty space in Charlotte left from a century of decay and disinvestment.

On the other hand, if the market is super hot then properties may become over valued ... when I see this and think there is more downside, market risk goes up and I counteract by deleveraging.It is largely a personal choice and some may disagree, but this is my personal philosophy and some practical examples on how I apply this philosophy.

Some of the highest crime rates in the United States are now those of Detroit, and huge areas of the city are in a state of severe urban decay.

I don't know anything about Dalles, OR but I'm intimately familiar with the decaying towns left behind as the steel industry in the US went from world dominance to bankruptcy...With no population growth, no income growth, no job growth, RE appreciation doesn't factor in. 

I was hoping to get some advice/guidance on initial steps that should be taken when targeting an area in decay. 

They decay and fall apart at a much higher rate.

Weather and ordinary decay causes every landlord to spend money.