You will have to pay dues each year, and pay for MLS access, those add up to a couple thousand a year.

@Kareena Sharma I personally prefer the Duplex.

There are a couple of things I could fix myself for cheaper, however, that's not the primary question I would have for long distance investing. 

I prefer to get started in residential. 

My questions are: - What is a preferred structure for investors?

We find our best contractors in a couple ways:1.

@Abby Flynna few random thoughts-definitely stay local (for now) - you have a lot of great markets within a couple hours of where you are-it's very difficult to 'start' with a flip - flips take capital and you're going up against all the professional flippers who flip as a business-go to all the local REIA meetings within a 1-2 hour radius - find the ones you like - go to those regularly-call lenders and discuss loan options. 

You should be okay for the first couple of properties.

@Jacob Lopez, as others noted, house hacking is not really a cash flow play, in a traditional sense, since you are effectively removing 33-50% of the property from the rent roll.If you plan on living in a unit for a couple years, then holding longer as an investment, I would underwrite it as an investment.  

At least for LA, SF, and SD, the whole city just about falls into those categories in some regard unless you are way out in newly developed suburbs or something.In my time around LA, there are definitely some places I would avoid and some places I would prefer to own an MTR.