Hey @Monty Alston, welcome to BP!

Welcome to the community, Evan!

I do a lot of private lending and we do make some passive interest, but the good fixing flippers make the bulk of the money.

Hey @Alex Huntington Welcome to BP!

Are you looking to do a fix/flip or a BRRRR?

Not able to move (at least for a while) due to my job.Looking to use savings that would’ve been for a primary residence down payment to invest in rental property out of state.Would love to make connections, hear thoughts on good markets to look into, strategies to maximize return, etc. 

This is the way to start in my opinion!

But ya have to make some educated prognostications in life.Add this to the information your processing - What your talking about doing is eliminating around $4000 or interest expense (which is deductible anyway so really could be a real impact of eliminating $2800 or so) of debt in exchange for paying over $10K in capital gains tax (don't forget possible state gains tax as well).  

Sounds like you're on the right track for areas to find deals.

I don't think your first property needs to be perfect, but doing the work in advance gives you the possibility of refi (in a good rate environment) or more equity on a HELOC.