Keep in mind that the market, in AZ, is shifting and you will be able to offer under what the property is listed for.

Perhaps the market is starting to shift, however.

The supply on the market has not been great lately and it seems like most of the available properties are located in neighborhoods I don't really want to live in...do I wait it out and see if the market shifts in the next few months?

I will definitely be contacting you once im off my shift. 

Any where that there has been a big demographic shift and retail has followed the higher earning demographic to a new part of town.. 

Option 2) hiring a management company - would allow you to shift focus back to your primary job.

You will need to know factors such as economic trends, population shifts in or out, state laws and local laws (landlord friendly vs tenant friendly etc)... physical property hazards by season (flooding, rain, hail, fire) or in general (ie I personally can't fathom investing in New Orleans unless it was to AirBNB for the short term and then sell the property)   - If you can narrow down to one or two states, then I would look for "where are the tenants I want to deal with located" theres so many ways to answer that question but you may want to start looking in a major metro area... most states have less than 10 major cities or areas of decent population density. 

Some are telling me to hold for the market to shift but, I'm not convinced we'll see the shift many are anticipating unless we see a flood of foreclosures due to inflation.

1%-2% of leads that you attract will become investors60%-70% of those are likely to invest again if you take care of themSo many times as business owners, we tend to look at revenue goals to determine how many leads we need to generate in order to reach the needed revenue for our business.I want to challenge you to place your focus on nurturing each lead, what is the overall value that you are bringing to each lead, and how much revenue you are generating from each investor that has ‘bought in’ to your brand and business plan rather than focusing on how many new leads you can generate according to the metrics required in order to reach your overall revenue goals.This is a mindset shift!

I'm sure you may be able to make some money if you can execute.On the other hand, I've run across several apartments that started doing a condo conversion, selling off units, and then the market shifted and the seller couldn't sell the rest of the condos at a good price.