I've lived near bham all my life but starting to think of things thru the investor lens is a new undertaking.

Perhaps this will be an unpopular opinion…..I would either: think of this purely from an investment lens, in which case owning cross country is fine….OrTreat this as a vacation/investment, and make it driving distance.My worry is that you’ll buy a place in say FL, you’ll fly there twice/year.

We are only looking through a small lens of your entire financial situation, risk tolerance, goals, etc.

Landscape photography is a strong suit—with this style I’ve learned to utilize my wide angle lens (16-35mm) on my Canon DSLR, and have become well-acquainted with Adobe Lightroom for photo editing.How valuable do you believe this skill set is as an investor/agent?

Might be best to evaluate from a macro lens versus a micro lens.

Avail, rent track, rent lens, cozy, nerd wallet, pay your rent, pinch, and rental Kharma. 

He lens in DE.

I have a photo and design background, and take them with a compact cam that has a wider than average lens.

A Canon 5D MkIII (full frame DSLR) with a Canon 16-35mm LII lens - very wide angle.Any very wide angle setup will do, but combine that with a decent HDR in-camera function or HDR in post processing.I can shoot most houses in under 45 minutes. 

Every time somebody posts a thread claiming it's impossible to cash flow in California I have to smile and shake my head because all it takes is looking at the market with a slightly different lens to realize there is amazing opportunity right in our backyards.