I'm just starting out and considering the following markets for a potential OOS investment property.

Depending on your investing goals.

I'm from South Lake Tahoe and recently quit my day job to invest full time. 

I did see you were in Jacksonville, FL which is a great investing community to be in.

If you buy a property with 20% down, and the investment appreciates 5% a year and cash flows $200/Mo, in 4 years you'll have made over double the cash you invested.If you're looking OOS, prices in Columbus are still low enough to find 1% rule deals and there's a ton of appreciation happening in this market as well.

Adjust the split if one invests more or takes on greater responsibility.

You say this would be when your flip sells...flips are inventory in an active business, not investment, so they cannot be 1031'd.

I want to help my son get off to a great start but I am also concerned what cosigning will do to my debt to ratio and I have been circling real estate investing for the last few years, ready to take a shot now.

Even relatively modest investments in these areas can yield impressive returns.