I believe strongly in networking and its benefits and have seen other bigger pockets members benefit from local meetups.

If it's a lender we know nothing about, they strongly encourage the buyer to at least do a phone application with our preferred lender so we know that the buyer is good.For this particular property - make sure you have fantastic pictures, reduce the price to your contracted price, and talk about that in the descriptions.  

Our real estate market is extremely strong here and so is the competition, which is driving up prices.

@Albert HassonWell I strongly disagree. 

West Allis has some strong areas, along with Bayview, South Milwaukee and may other areas.I also know many buy and hold investors are hitting that 1% to 2% rule on their properties.If you are interested in investing in Milwaukee, feel free to contact me.

As a renter and parent in Marysville, I can tell you there are plenty of families who are OK with the public school system in Marysville (IMO all public school systems in any area suck for their own reasons) and Marysville has a strong sense of community not found in Seattle.  

I am also looking for a strong property management company for out of state investment options.

With that said, we were blessed with a strong first 3 months of the year.

One additional thing I would suggest is to speak with people doing the type and style of investing that most interests you.

Is the rental market strong?