With turnkey rentals, it would be more difficult.

My biggest suggestion that has helped me in the early stages is obviously reading as much as possible but that can be difficult as I have a 2 year old girl.

If you are unable to view the property then it will make your financing that much more difficult.

And even if you did, it would only happen if they need to raise money, so it would be very difficult to pull off with the timing.So what remains are some of the second-tier sites, which haven't attracted venture funding for one reason or another, but hopefully have something unique or compelling that you feel makes them more worthy of an investment.

Local properties have land but solely for farming purposes...so getting a proper gauge for pricing will be a bit difficult.

These can be very difficult tenants as well.  

A PPM is not difficult.

It was farther from town than ideal and would be farther for most to drive to work and hence slightly more difficult to keep rented.  

The issue I see is granting title under conditions, you can make a gift with strings attached, you may restrict the deed but, after conveyance control is more difficult.

Looking around the forums and based on general knowledge, NJ seems to be quite difficult to invest in as far as rental properties due to high taxes.