But it's not necessarily that abundant and concentrated and maybe in plain sight, and most of all, not the first word that comes to mind when thinking of the area.

Swing by the LSU or McNeese book store and look for Principles of Real Estate, a college class on RE, it's an easy read.

These are serious, long-term investments, and sight unseen just wouldn't work for us.

Building good business relationships with people is a very important principle to me.

I have read on forums about some companies helping with lowering principle Has anyone had experience with them are they actually worth looking into.

When we moved out to California we did a sight unseen house because we needed a place to live. 

Granted he's talking about huge apartment complexes but the same principles can be applied to sfh's.  

Got a 3rd call today from an out of state tenant who now says she wants to rent my house, sight unseen, and offered to pay a years worth of rent upfront with a $100/mo (6%) discount, plus security deposit and pet deposit. 

If the 18k is sunk money on a sale but gets you to break even and allows you to pay down the principle then over time you will gain ground.If you have an older loan with a higher interest rate you could try for a 30 year refi using he 18k to bring the balance down, but your equity build will be very small at the front end.Sell to an investor with subject to / wrap financing.  

For example, if you have an $80K mortgage at an interest rate of 5% for 30 years, your mortgage payment (principle and interest) will be $429 per month.