Don’t know if vineyards have good ROI, but I do see several vineyards in southern Jersey when I drive in that part of the state. 

They have an app that you can run comps on, play with rehab budgets, do ARV calculations as you drive for dollars and apply for the loan on the spot.

A difficult, but safe approach is to pay for a 6 or 12 month option to purchase the office building.  

Thought it was a safe first investment, instead of flipping or fixing with no prior experience.

The next neighborhood over (literally across the street) is pretty nice, but falls in a different township that has higher property tax, and then the next neighborhood (about a 4 min drive and 15 minute walk) is much lower end, and while fine class C-ish area, you can't push rents much, and the village has its own income tax, so you will pay 2% of your net to the village...But back to first comment: take 4-5 days and travel to each.  

In order to stretch further away, it is an 8 hour drive or an hour flight. 

the market is unforgiving right now, and if you buy a random property by looking on Zillow and turn it over to people you don't know to manage, you'll lose money.with respect to your specific question, if the property is safe, clean, and priced correctly, it will rent. but that doesn't mean you'll make money on it. 

I grew up in a northwest suburb an hour to an hour 15 minute drive away from where I currently live in Chicago; and my parents still live out that way.

Consider emerging Sunbelt markets like Phoenix, Tampa, or parts of North Carolina (like Raleigh or Charlotte) that continue to see high migration and job growth, driving both appreciation and rental demand.

I feel people should just stick to places they feel safe.