My biggest piece of advice is to spend time interacting in the forums.

Keep your day job and enroll into RE school to get your RE license this will get you interacting with like minded individuals..

Generally speaking encouraging people to try to time the market and steering them towards high risk strategies is bad investing advice in my opinion, and yes I would place OOS investing for high cash flow in the “high risk” category, possibly the equivalent of buying a stock with a 13% dividend yield thinking that’s a smart move because the cash flow is great when in reality the company is likely desperate to raise cash and approaching bankruptcy, just like rust belt properties with high cash flow might seem good to a short-sighted investor, when in reality those properties are cheap because locals have witnessed decades of out migration/ industrial decline and realize those properties are on the cusp of economic and functional obsolescence.

There are more expenses and more work but a good PM who does vacation rentals (very important distinction) could get your property up and running for you and handle all the bookings, guest interactions, maintenance, etc. 

It is encouraging to see stories likes yours!  

I'm looking forward to interacting with people and learning all I can.

I believe that's more than enough, but I do welcome and encourage questions.

@Engelo Rumora Elizabeth Colegrove Thanks for all your replies and encouragement.

Good luck on your journey, just here to encourage!

Welcome @Erik Vik if it means anything at all, engineers typically skyrocket in this business...good conceptual mind...I would always encourage looking for deals close to home, but the Midwest is probably your safest bet for finding value.