There are multiple communities along there with lots of less expensive multifamily and its within a day's round trip,  which will allow you the ability to keep a much closer eye on your first investment.Good luck!    

I like looking at off campus university bus routes as a starting  point for where the students are living.

Keep working with the agent in person (even if it means having to take several trips out there) until you feel comfortable that you guys are thinking the same. 

We'd need to make at least two more trips to get it rented - one to put a sign in the yard and one to hold an open house.

Now, I found for older stuff, it's still paper filed in folders, so someone on line at the office told me that I might have to make several trips to make the requests because of misfiling.

The best commercial property I ever got started with a trip to the office of records after hearing about it from a friend. 

It is conveniently located one block from a bus-stop to NYC(45min to Port Authority by Bus, 1hr by Train, and 25 min by Car[no traffic]), as well as a mile away from Kearny Train Station and 1.5 miles from Lyndhurst Train Station.

Phone calls, emails, drives home in the car from work or trips contacting people and staying in touch.

close to a Bus Stop?

The thing you have to remember is that whoever does it has a minimum of 3-4 separate trips to the property in order to let things set up - its not a quick one day job.