The Northern Utah REIA (NUREIA.org) holds a monthly meeting and you could easily get some good perspective there.

From a processes perspective, there are not any significant differences.  

the nature of the soil there is your foundation could be good one day.then you literally wake up next day and you have a shift and cracked foundation and walls and your doors won't close cabinets hang crooked your tenant is not happy.. may never happen but more than likely it will.. as stated every single property I financed there had money in the budget for foundations  coping and wall repairs plumbing... waste line to the street those all get cracked and or leak when the soil moves..

:) @Craig Kleffman You have striking and well thought out arguments here, just trying to add my perspective.

Your idea of a rough neighborhood versus the perspective from an investor with plenty experience in that same neighborhood might be far apart.  

From my perspective, it is the financially literate who are the ones making us rich.

The reason the top submarkets are so competitive with all the big boys is because they know if the economy shifts they're hedging against the market because people want to live in the best areas the market has to offer.

It seems that the Deed of Trust is better from the seller perspective.

I am interested and appreciative to hear other's perspectives on this, so thanks for your response.

You'll learn far more managing the in and out of tenants and advertising and interviewing perspective tenants, repairs and such if your right there.