Wanted to still be close to family but maintain a cheaper lifestyle, still have strong appreciation, and much better tenant/landlord laws, taxes, etc. 

I imagine cost of labor might be a little bit cheaper in Idaho compared to Connecticut as we ended up paying 10k for gas furnace and 5k for AC with 10 yr warranty for Lennox product.  

There's no way it takes that long to shovel the sidewalk on a building of that size.Shop around and I'm sure you'll find someone that does it for much cheaper.

There are cheaper one’s in D/F areas but I would be careful as those can create a laundry list of additional issues.

This is the heart of the reason housing isn't mroe affordable, that landlords bear these types of costs every day.You could probably find cheaper labor, especially to haul away the junk, but not easily as an out of state investor. 

You have to put 5% down vs 3.5% down, rates are usually higher, but if you have strong credit, your PMI cost can be cheaper than that of FHA loans. 

Between renting and buying a turnkey-ready home, renting is cheaper.

It will be cheaper than our mortgage and our incomes will be increasing.

One possibility is building a duplex in Peoria, while it's not the best rental market, getting a duplex at a possibly much cheaper price than market value is extremely appealing.

Some commuters to Dallas, because rent is cheaper in Sherman than Dallas.As far as DFW metroplex goes, probably one of my favorite cities for investment right now.My thought is look at newer homes vs the 100 year old ones.