Or tried to rent in Utah lately.

My biggest question right now is investing in Utah vs. out of state.

LOL.As opposed to the locals in a town buying all their rentals..the locals know the ins and outs the risk reward of certain neighborhoods and won't touch them for buy and hold. its the unaware naïve investor that gets sucked into those.. the foreign investors especially. the UT most care must be taken with buying out of state properties....

I wouldn't know the first thing about the market in Utah or Iowa - it's unrealistic for them to have expertise in every state and market. 

From the very basic research I’ve done, I’ve figured out that good deals can be had in the following states (in my price range): Florida, Georgia, Texas, Ohio, Colorado and Utah.

I live and began investing last year in Utah.

Did I forget to mention the Dell/UT Medical Research Center they are building and projecting to be as big as the tech sector job growth.  

I can say I've struggled with a couple 4-6 unit multi's in Dtown, but have done well with singles.There's a guy that is local here in Ut that claims to do a lot in Detroit.  

I've been very happy with the one in Texas and am now actually negotiating on to other subdivisions here in southern Utah.

I'm a newbie from Utah planning on moving to California (northern) in the next few months and was planning on house hacking for my first purchase.