That said, I’m assuming that someone must be buying these wholesale properties.  

And there are no counties that ban out of state investors buying investment properties.  

Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

.: As a contractor and flipper, I dont buy materials from retailers or online.

Joint ventures entail utilizing your own money to buy properties with others.

Then, if you can trend over time you'll want to see where the "path of progress" is going/moving and attempt to buy in that path of progress to gain some appreciation in the future.

I want to be a investor buying and holding as well as fix an flips.

Buying a large new build home can also work well as a house hack as you can charge a premium rent, and generally most bedrooms built now a days have en suites (at least in my market).  

In your case, you are probably better off buying a break-even deal in Tampa then a deal with $200 cash flow OOS.

I am not sure if I would make the same decision today.However, if you think you can purchase real estate and have a SIGNIFICANT delta as an investment, I would not cash out the 401k now to buy real estate.