She said that was not true!!!

So far that does not seem too easy too find locally, so I am looking at midwest/southeast markets to find SFRs or MFRs to be managed professionally. 

Hello BP,I know how important building a website in real estate is, because not only does it contain what you have to offer, but it makes you look more professional as an agent or investor for that matter.

Although I did just do a quick google search for professional real estate photography and the prices are $100-$200.

Like a lot of the podcast guests say, perseverance and drive really sets apart the successful ones from the failures. 90% of the issues just required a phone call...I have found this to be true as well, sometimes it takes a while to find the right person/office to call but once you get to the right person they are usually able to take down the barrier pretty easily.

I can't tell from your post, but if you are just speaking of multifamily meaning a duplex or triplex to house hack to pay your mortgage, then I would focus on where you can get a good professional job first, then look in that market for a place where the numbers work to house hack.If you are looking at larger multifamily in Memphis, then try to talk to @Erik Nowacki who moved from CA to Memphis to own and manage multifamily.

This is simply not true, unless you're buying in the hood. 

Just saying ,the expenses for out of state properties is hard to manage when you have no physical, eyes on, level of work, or professionalism done,, until a problem really surfaces and then you've paid thru the nose, jump hoops to figure things out after the fact. 

We want to start investing in real estate to offset that income by one of us becoming a "real estate professional".

You'd be well served to enlist the help of a local RE professional that's really familiar with these.. nuances, so to speak.There are at least a few of them on this forum.