Many posters say it's important . . . and they're happy to help you set it up for a fee.See what's happening?

To invest out of state successfully, focus on building a strong local team (agent, PM, contractors), automating deal analysis, and using contingencies to protect yourself.

Are you agent yourself and what makes you say that you'll avoid buying a home under 1000 sqaure feet again? 

You don't own the debt even though you are nice enough to pay it.

You likely only made a down payment of 3-20% ....but you still get to write it off on the full value across 27.5 years.So 400k/27.5 = 14,000 ish a year of a write off where during the year you didn't need to incur an actual expense, no cash outflow. 

You can learn to do this independently or get a rockstar REALTOR to lead the way.

Do I have to disclose the sale to the property owner?

This will put me at cash flow neutral and I'll let appreciation and long term rent appreciation do it's work.

I was trying to use the basic version today and uploaded some records and it looks like I can do anything with it! 

I talk to so many people who regret not getting a PM up front because they are having problems or high eviction rates doing it alone.