Although I might be biased because I've been active in Indianapolis for many years, I think that Indy has some real economic and demographic advantages.

So far it goes through process step by step on how to network and to gain comfort investing a far, especially with the marketing being so hot in your area.Based on your financing I would recommend to use your HELOC and try to get one buy and hold, biased because my strategy is buy and hold.

Scary to me... but I'm a biased insurance guy.

As I manage the local REIA in Kansas City I am biased, however:When you connect and join your local REIA group you get a lot more than just learning - Sure you can learn a lot here on BP, but the local REIA has training to at the monthly meetings and weekend workshops that are a bit more hands on and face to face.Second you can connect with a lot more people.  

I'm a multi-family broker in Portland, so this will sound a bit biased...  

Owned a SFR in Silicon Valley (Santa Clara County), CA, sold it at the peak of the market and 1031'd into a MFU 6unit in Redlands, CA.Santa Clara has always been hot, so phenomenal appreciation was no surprise.buy & hold on the MFU created phenomenal cash flow each year, for 18 yearsLot's of bias here on BP as to which is better, so I'll let you research for yourself - - determine your goals and how you want to interact with your REI and then proceed.PSST; nothing worthwhile is 'easy'

I am kind of biased and would recommend Texas because Dallas, Houston, and Austin are all popular and doing well.  

@Hannah Jones The realtor makes money off you buying the property, and may be biased.

That's my biased opinion, since that's all I do.

Brokers can be very helpful (but I'm biased :) ).