I am wanting to engage more frequently with people more knowledgeable and/or experienced than me.

Came across an article challenging a long held notion that class c properties do best in recessions Did your market have perform like this? 

I am engaged to beautiful women from Bogota Colombia we are waiting for her visa approval hopefully within the next few months.

Seems things have changed.)From the CallHippo Study: Tuesday, 30 May 2017 - The Best Day And Time To Make A Business CallCallHippo did a research on what is the right time to make a call to your prospect,where we took the data of our 1000+ clients that engage with their prospects over calls on a daily basis.

I agree that proper reserves/cash flow are what it takes to get you through pretty much any challenge. 

I am a newbie investor, who is trying to invest from out of state and for me the most challenging is getting a good team of people set up (i.e. property manager, contractors, loan officers, accountants, lawyers, etc.).

Challenging times ahead for certain.

As a side benefit, this has helped me engage with people I might not ever have met except that we got involved and "put our money where our mouths are" when it comes to saying we want to help do some good for other people.It's one thing to say we wish to be generous and to help. 

It would not surprise me if many of these houses are rental houses.The challenge you will have is that houses in this neighborhood sell for about $60 per square foot and the cost of new construction is significantly higher. 

As an out of state investor it can be challenging to compete with the locals, especially in the better or becoming better areas.