@Wells H. you can spend DAYS driving through Detroit!

While it will likely give you more confidence and answer a lot of questions, I would say that talking to a seasoned investor, or even agent that works with investors, is a way better idea than spending 8K on something that you don't know too much about, especially before your first deal is done.

My immediate goal is to acquire our first property and spend the next two years mastering the basics of real estate investment. ( Refining the Go and No property search criteria/ Learning the value of taxes and avoiding them as much as possible/ 1031 exchanges) Depending on my wife’s career orders, we may remain in Baltimore for 1-2 years, but I’m also exploring opportunities in West Texas, Sierra Vista, AZ, and Houston, TX.

Be prepared to spend a lot of money creating the infrastructure.  

I know when I was an active Broker my SOP  was get listing open escrow with buyer to be determined and order the preliminary title report prior to spending money on marketing someones property..

Every time I change cleaners, I spend at least 3-5 hours retraining on my processes and expectations and even then things are missed.

Little to no rehab/capex spending was needed.

@Heather Bailey Wow thank you so much for spending your time to help guide me!

I'm sure they also spend significantly more time on their role, than you do in yours....or at least their time spent is more constrained where yours can be remote/on the road. 

A client of mine recently invested there and raves aboutt the ease of finding solid contractors who stick to the budget.One piece of advice: before jumping into any market, spend time understanding the local economy, demand drivers (like job growth and population trends), and the landloard laws.