I'm willing to live in a fixer upper, put sweat equity into it for two years, then move on to the next to start.My problem is that most of these homes I come across are 20 min out of town, have been on the market for a while, and are $115k.

Wish one day, we can brave enough to explore commercial properties.

Purchased a 3 bedroom 2 bath (showers only) beach property home in Birch Bay WA (unincorporated town near Blaine).

People know which town looses people, where economy is growing, etc...

what side of town do you usually do business on? 

Looks like a nice town, but one that probably has limited economic prospects.   

We are also exploring cheap 2/1s with added master suites and other similar options. 

I'm a new investor gearing up for a trip to Indy to explore buy-and-hold, single family properties for rental income.

I run the largest REI meeting in town and I have invested both in Vegas and out of state. 

I completely agree, the distance just makes it more challenging and expensive to manage your manager...i have to pay the cost for airline tickets to inspect their work vs a drive across town...