I was investing long distance right from the start.

That is MUCH harder to do from a distance and when your personal experience may be with newer homes that don't have issues like this.

Check out YouTube videos or podcasts from Dave Meyers.Read "Long Distance Real Estate Investing" by David Greene.Don't expect to absorb everything in one sitting.

I am listening to bigger pockets podcasts as well as currently reading "Set for Life" and am looking forward to reading "Long Distance Real Estate Investing" next.

This town is very small in population (population trend not growing) although has a community college that is less than half mile walking distance from ANY of the properties (community college population is growing at WELL above avg rate(dorm rate 850mth))

Find the commuter lot if possible and ask students where they would look for off campus housing.

These sellers typically want a fast sale to move on with their lives and avoid ongoing conflicts.Relocating SellersPeople who need to relocate for a new job, military deployment, or other personal reasons often seek a quick sale to avoid the burden of managing a long-distance property.Inherited PropertiesHeirs who inherit a property they don't want to maintain or manage may be eager to sell quickly.

We have now exited the crash pad model as it was too management intensive to maintain at a distance.

With about 100k to put  down, I don't think I can be anywhere close to cash flow break even (at least not in any market that is driving distance from the Metro DC area). 

A great place to learn more about WA real estate investing and finding deals and connections is our local REIA - https://www.reapsweb.com and checking out some of our Zoom meetings if you can.There's some great pages on Facebook that you can find deals from other investors, and if you're looking for turnkey there's always the MLS (Zillow, Redfin, etc will get you access to those).If you want a specific search setup, reach out and I can get that started based on the criteria you're looking for too.As someone that moved up from CA a few years ago, I was curious why you're looking at WA instead of other long-distance locations?