The things that will consume more of your time will be maintenance calls and/or coordination (these don't happen every month, especially in a good property with a good tenant), communications with tenants about lease renewals or violations, and of course evictions (hopefully you can avoid these of course).

If it's the latter, in the mid 90's there were a gazillion homes that used wood product siding that was problematic to the point that there were class action lawsuits concerning it and many homes were resided under conditions of the settlement.

I'm just starting to research REI and looking for suggestions on books or other resources I should consume.

They may also be able to get together and file a lawsuit blocking the action.

There were literally no consequences for their actions.  

I've been narrowing down new cities that I'd like to invest in with a group of people and we've been going the normal route of collecting data through government sites but it's time consuming. 

There isn't really any good way to remove all the risk without a no further actions letter.

Take action instead of finding excuses. 

Read up on the TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act), which imposes fines ranging from $500 to $1,500 PER TEXT MESSAGE. 

You are doing it, taking action, and working on your path and not someone else's!