As people have already mentioned, there is no shortage of investment opportunities out of state.Do your due diligence, get to know the area (visit if that lets you sleep at night), and vet the heck out of anybody you are going to work with.

Sean Reynolds,The longer you draw it out the bigger the risk you take with ruining your credit and the more money you lose covering your cash flow rental shortage.

Is there currently a surplus or a shortage of properties for rent?

You'll most likely have to prove yourself to them over time since there is no shortage of people with no money and no credit that claim they want to be in real estate and promise to be an asset but just never pan out and end up being a waste of their time once they realize real estate is not fun and games and cashing rent checks but hard work with a lot of rejection along the way.

I'm not far from Cal and the Bay Area has a housing shortage so I'm not too concerned about finding a renter.

In terms of additional costs, I'd rather have prop taxes than "hidden costs" of squatters, unknown environmental rehab costs, shortage of labor, etc.

If there is a shortage in your market for 3 beds you may be able to get a premium rent. 

Discrepancies, conflicts in boundary lines, shortage in area, encroachments, or any other facts which a correct survey would disclose, and which are not shown by the public records.5.

The greater Joplin area has a shortage of rental homes--specifically for the 4+ bedroom range.

mindy i am in houston for the last 8 years. i can tell you this much... pre-harvey we had arguably some of the most overvalued real estate... post harvey we will see a lot of communities simply not get rebuilt.there is actually a lot of rental capacity in houston so i dont think its a similar situation to what NOLA had and comparisons in recent history are going to be hard to find.in the short term , people are still gutting houses... actually theres a shortage of drywall in some of the suburbslabor is also in shortage... but i think theres a lot of people laid off from oil and gas from the last downturn that will welcome the work with open arms.... but the problem is some of these floodway communitites simply wont come back.there is no good solution to the problem houston has at this point without MASSIVE infrastructure development and buying properties in floodways with eminent domain (which i am sure many will be happy to have happen to their flooded house)ive personally talked to 3 diff people that said they are planning on taking insurance money  and fire selling house the first chance they get.