For your first investment, the best thing you can do is team up with an experienced investor to help walk you through the process and help you get some skin in the game.

My advise is use your local knowledge, communication,  and connections to get you the right team, that will set you far more advance than any out of state investors.  

I would suggest teaming up with an experienced investor to mentor you through your first investment.

I love this saying "Baseball games are not won by home runs, but rather by the skilled talent of a team who knows the value of the base hit"Thanks

We have seen area, although we only get our 'local knowledge' from our agent, building inspector, property managers and rehab team (a risk, we know).  

If you are a wholesaler/Rehabber, please let me know what you are looking for so I can look for properties that meet your criteria so we can team-up on a great deal.Thanks,Selam

Definitely check into teaming up with a mentor/experienced real estate investor to help you through your first few projects.

@JOAN DICKIE Interesting that you say that because my Team Lead at my market center recommended that we use it as well. 

I met with @Kevin Hoag on their team last month, and though my current strategy isn't a fit with their focus, it may be for yours. 

My realtor and I team up on these edits to help push out our project and generate interest in what we set as the "pre-sale" time frame of the property (usually 1-2 weeks before it goes live on the MLS).