It was only 10 mins away, which made getting into real estate feel more possible.Because we live in a high cost of living state (Utah), I had been listening to a TON of Bigger Pockets podcasts and thought that distance investing would be the way to go for our next property.I investigated using a turnkey company, and even talked to some of them, including some of the companies on your list. 

That said, my regular 9-5 job is as an investigator for a statewide law enforcement agency, so I deal with the courts a lot in that aspect.

Go to the city website, call the local building department and go to your local business journal or google "crane watch" and the city you're investigating. 4.

When you finish your property manager interviews you should have a reasonable guess to the answers to each of the following:• Where• Type• Configuration• Rent range• Regulations (like eviction cost)• Typical rehab costs • Typical time a tenant stays• Typical turn cost• Insurance cost• Property tax rate• Probable property manager you would like to work with• Probable ongoing maintenance costs• Probable recurring costs• Purchase price range - When you know where, type and configuration, you can easily determine the sales price range using Zillow or a similar site.Time to dig deeper.Detailed Location Investigation ConsiderationsWith the property profile you created during Location Level Considerations, you should know what you want.

you seem pretty matter-of-fact on this stuff...just curious after coming out of a 9-week civil rights complaint for denying reasonable accommodation to a tenant where I have 70-pages of email correspondence to his requests....he filed a complaint and the root of his complaint was another tenant...both disabled vets...both protected classes...he lost the hearing...thankfullyI think the point is that we're on the wrong side of the table...anyone with the will can lodge a complaint...and even if it's BS you won't be able to escape the system until you reach the end...and even at that, you're limited to the idiocy and bureaucracy that plagues the system to rule in your favor.Even if @Enyi Ajoku is exempt from federal fair housing, a complaint can be filed...and you can get caught in the spiderweb of government investigation.

The property was in good condition and offered a fair price, but I now realize that I overlooked an important aspect during my initial investigation - the neighborhood.

All you need is one complaint for someone who knows a lot more about this than you do to investigate you for criminal charges. 

Who is going to conduct a preliminary inspection?

Could be a good tool to use to run preliminary numbers on a property. https://thisismortgage.com/fha-self-sufficiency-test-calculator/

Thank you all for your input.After digging more into this topic, I learned that short-term rental income can be used to offset my W2 income, so I am starting to investigate the area to invest in the upper State of New York.