We have plenty of money for a 20-25% down payment, but the problem is our income.

Plenty of good pros on BP who you might want to connect with for a consultation. 

On the other side of the coin there are plenty of neighborhoods where you can buy for 50k put 50k into it and sell for 150k.

There's plenty of other things for tourists to do while in the are as well.

Once you have a few local investments under your belt and have some hands on experience, then and only then should you consider out of state, but by that time I'd bet you would come to the same conclusion I did which is that there are plenty of profits to be had locally and there is no reason to venture out of state.

Plenty of people do this without owning a primary first.2.

I think it is flsonline.They have it in excel format already with plenty of additional info.You can check with them about the other counties, but typically they have just for the larger counties in Texas.Good people.The other places you would have to put in excel, I don't think they are spreadsheet ready and lack a lot of info.You can probably get a VA to put it in excel cheap and fast.  

Also, I knew I had skill sets that I could make money with on the side and plenty of opportunities to do it.

I'm simply talking in generalities and trying to get some feedback from more experienced members before I venture out there into the wild world of land development and building.People say to start small, and I am ... small meaning 4 new construction SFR's, but with the right partner(s) I also have a different plan for 13 SFR's, ideally I'd like to do both, and plenty more after that.I have a simple yet attractive and interesting twist, something I haven't seen any other developer market in this fashion, and will allow me to charge a premium for these properties.

Come by AZREIA tonight if you can, tonight is the Buy and Hold Investors subgroup, I'm sure there will be plenty of locals with good recommendations.  24th St & McDowell @ 6pm, come early for open networking