I have friends who have fled Boston, friends who are trying to flee Boston and friends who swear they'll never visit Boston between Oct and May.

I do a better job and enjoy that extra 10% a month (which is no doubt more than 10% when all is said and done as I am proactive about getting lower trade quotes, doing work myself when I'm back in town visiting, etc.). 

I knew I wanted to buy rentals, out of state so I also visited the two markets I'm in before buying anything. 

(Close to California buyers, place to visit on vacation, place to retire, they live in Vegas and want to invest locally, if they can afford to keep it these people aren’t selling.) 

It will help you I assure you.

The first two because we have parents in both of those locations...so it would be easy to merge visits to the parents with visits to rental properties.

You can pay a little more on the front end and go through a financial institution like LendingOne or Visio, or visit all the local banks in your area.

Here is my suggestion.If you find a property, where the numbers work, then put together a solid business case and visit 5-10 banks and see what they say.

Do you know any apps or services that can help with keeping track of people, when I visit them, information about them and so on?

I generally go back to Houston one to two times a year to visit friends and family who live there.