I am sure there are plenty of people investing in those areas and making money but we have tended to focus on areas where our property manager has properties.

Focus!

I'm focused on acquiring small multifamily property in the immediate future, and note investing is a strategy that I am exploring for the future.  

So lets dive in and get you up to speed on what's happening; I am currently deployed overseas until mid 2019 with a substantial amount of cash saved up and want to put that towards proper investments while I am away, so when I return home real estate investing will be my sole focus.

Decide how much money you have access to, & the zip codes, city or state you want to focus on.

You sound like your starting to focus in on what you want, and how to get there.

Thanks @Josh Stack, my focus so far has been on comparing different markets at a high level.

You make a great point that I just realized needs to be my first big focus:  Finding a great broker and lender that will be able to work for me and take the guesswork out of a deal.  

Losing focus at a new job while trying to eek out another 3% return margin (just making up numbers) isn’t a good scenario in my opinion.

Welcome to the community, its nice to see you selected a niche to focus on. while at your dashboard or profile page, click on education then you can select strategy, then rentals and you'll have tons of reading about rental strategy.