Technology makes long distance investing possible, but it's still easier and less risky to do it close to home. 

I have a few follow up questions:1) What's an example of "get referrals and cross reference them to get as much accurate information as possible"? 

But there are so many possible places to look, it gets overwhelming. 

I would just recommend renting their modem so you are always receiving the highest speed possible.   

Even if it were possible to wait it out and do a "gotcha" at the end, that's just not how I want to treat anyone. 

Just take what you get for free, which is an Airbnb listing, and just put the best most spectacular pictures you possibly can on there and after you’ve done that, go back and look at your listing and try to think of ways to make those pictures even betterI think that’s pretty much the formula to success in this industry.

BiggerPockets also has a calculator to analyze deals, and I highly recommend you start this as soon as possible, even if you are not ready to buy.

@Veronique Leroy I would say it is possible if you force equity, hold for a few years and then sell and then average the return of the whole profit over the timeframe of deal.

I would push for very low or no money down but having a Realtor that needs to have their fee paid it may still not work.Look up the owner if possible through truepeoplesearch.com and call them up directly.

I think the idea of starting fresh financially, as soon as possible, would eliminate a lot of stress.