I would take a couple days and go down there (preferably with a friend...rent a U-Haul truck and go get furniture from thrift stores, antiques stores, and even buy some new stuff.

do you guys prefer to only invest in newer homes  i.e. built after a certain year to reduce the possibility of having to do a lot of reno on wiring, plumbing, etc. or does it just depend on seeing the house and determining the condition that its in?

I’m a CPA and my have no preference, but only recently signed up to Xero just to have that ability to offer to a client.

I had generally been just saving my expenses in google sheets to further organize later and receipts in google drive since I can more easily access and upload all my paperwork from my phone and access my drive from anywhere.I have and use excel for some things, but I generally would prefer something more geared towards real estate. 

And all this for no monthly fee.I do prefer TVs with Roku built right in vs. a separate Roku device, because guests change the inputs, unplug the Roku box so they can plug in their own PlayStation, etc.

I would have to see minimum last 36mnths financials and would prefer 60.

If it is longer term, which do you prefer living in?

Obviously if you’ve done this before you likely have a method you prefer for dealing with these types of things.

The best market for YOU, is the market that fit's YOU; you're situation, your preferences, you're resources, your knowledge level, you're risk aversion and about 40 other personalized factors to you. 

I have a few for cash flow but I prefer equity - which I live in the Washington DC area so you are not going to be getting cash flowing rentals off the bat but if you hold them for 20 years you will not be complaining.