But many investors do lose out big time doing what you're talking about.I always advise people looking at a similar strategy to fly out there and spend some time on the ground.

When investing in a syndication, you are a passenger and there is a professional pilot flying the plane (if you picked the right company).But there are upsides too. 

when I went on my very first European vacation was early 80s as a young gunning SF bay area broker thinking we had the top of the pop real estate.landed in Zurich and of course first thing I do is grab the real estate brochures.. bullet train from Geneva to Paris look at that real estate then fly over to London.. and by the time I was done it was evident that we were not even close to a high ... and on top of that it became evident to me in areas of restricted growth and high demand that real estate as well will start to just get passed down in the families.. much like Europe.. again creating demand in certain cities..

However it serves a great purpose because it strengthens and trains the bird for skills it will need later like flying (pretty important). 

I am flying out to Indy/KC mid-Feb to check out their operations and hopefully do another trip to memphis/little rock in the summer.

No it's not in a war zone it's on the east coast, no section 8 just a lower income area not in a real bad neighborhood. still looking into some of the numbers but that's what's on the lease summary page. it needs a little TLC. im flying out to see it next week.

And as U state ESPECIALLY SF Peninsula with prices in the stratosphere just the deposit money is big money in many cases as much or more than you can buy an entire house in many of the fly over markets of the US...

For pre-license I used Mark Yarbrough School of Real Estate in Hoover.

Hmmmm, I want to move to FL,  I guess I better check out Jacksonville!"

I've heard it may work better to hire a lawyer to arrange financing, than fly back myself (target area still undecided, leaning towards OH or IN).