We are not idealistic, we follow the same process that ever serious lender does. 

Having a long-term rental while living abroad is do-able.Flipping houses while abroad, in my opinion, more difficult, especially if its your first go around with real estate.I would recommend taking a flight and staying in the area for a week and inspect the neighborhoods and make connections.You can reach out to @Elenis Camargo who has a PM company in Jacksonville.Best of luck though.

Others have hit it on the head.

Cost segregation is best for long-term holds and should be carefully planned with a CPA to align with your broader tax strategy.This post does not create a CPA-Client relationship.

Went a bit heavy on the annual taxes due to the increase in the area the past few years.

But what made me think about it for you as I read your post is the LULA feature. 

As much as we would love to invest in the warmer States it seems as if the MidWest is the place with the best returns. 

This is a long revived post- I'll add a little tax pro insight from what's happened in the last 2 years The IRS went from < 100 engineers on staff who were qualified to audit cost segregations to a few hundred. 

I will be posting in the future.

Most investors from California that post stuff like this usually end up in the Midwest.