The most common criteria I see investors evaluating when considering location are job growth, population growth, and school systems.

And I'd highly recommend doing a once-per-year walkthrough of the property yourself, so you know the manager is working in your best interest. 

I am worried about getting in with the prices being so high in the entire Portland area, but I’m more worried about not getting in and getting my real estate portfolio going.Best Regards,Justin

I highly recommend finding some events to go to on meetups.com/Facebook/your local REIA website.

Any recommendations from out-of-state investors like myself would be highly highly appreciated.

There is some accounting included, like owner statements and keeping track of all the important numbers for a STR property...i.e. occupancy, revenue, RevPAR, etc.As for guidebooks I highly recommend going on Etsy and finding templates for hard copies and templates for a digital copy.

If you can't keep control of your personal finances, you are highly unlikely to succeed in real estate investing.

I feel this would be a much higher cost due to the high level of labor needed.Thoughts?

I figure it could be a decent time to buy soon while it seems to be somewhat of a buyers market given high rates as I could be cash buyer.

We usually don't analyze residential properties (1-4) with Cap Rate...but your price points are quite high, so maybe those are 5+ units?...