I personally have rentals here in Houston, the cash-on-cash return and appreciation are steady.You need a team of local professionals like property managers, contractors, agents etc.A local Investor-Agent can help shorten your learning curve and save you a lot of headaches as they tend to understand the market better.You should select a market that will meet your investment goals.Here are four key reasons why investors purchase rental property out of state:Invest in geographic areas with population and job growth is strong.Diversify a rental property portfolio with markets that best match your investment strategy.Focus on the type of returns you’re looking for, such as maximum cash flow, high appreciation, or total yield over the targeted holding period.Operating expenses are lower in markets with fewer regulations, lower property taxes, and landlord-friendly laws.Finally, as mentioned earlier, it's crucial to build a great network of professionals to help you and to occasionally visit your property yourself.All the best!

Finally, as mentioned earlier, it's crucial to build a great network of professionals to help you and to occasionally visit your property yourself.All the best!

A lot of these areas its normal to have the occasional eviction or non-paying tenant this is typically not included at all in their pro-forma.As others said buy a property with little to no work can be great option.

There are still occasional ones that pop up and make sense but not many.

I will occasionally do a "I'll be there tonight fixing a few things, if you want to come by" for the people that just cant make the open house due to work etc.

Although most of these were on the MLS, they were often listings with no pictures besides the front door, and they were definitely not professionally staged lol.PS: You should never count solely on appreciation as an investor, but at the same time owning 3-5 half million dollar properties and adding 200K to your net worth in those occasional 10%+ appreciation years isn't a bad deal!

I have been listening to the podcast, reading books, reading forum post, and occasionally attending my local REI ( I know shame on me).

  :) I have an agent who will occasionally give me a good pre-market deal. 

I sometimes feel like I'm on an island and would love to form a small group of "co-workers" who would enjoy the occasional get together / coffee / brainstorming so we can help each other move to the next level.

About 5 miles away. 1 more raccoon is hanging around occasionally but I read the riot act to the tenants leaving trash out and it’s mostly stopped.