If you are serious about investing in other markets, I would absolutely plan a couple of trips that coincide with local meetups/REIA events for each market. 

Have you tried attending any FREE local real estate meet ups in your area?

Look for areas with job growth, population growth, and infrastructure development that can drive demand for real estate.Networking and Education: Connect with local real estate investors, agents, lenders, and other professionals to gain insights, knowledge, and potential investment opportunities.

I recently ran into this question with my remote multi-family property so want to see whether people have any thoughts or what should be normal practice.I hired a local 3rd party property management company to help me monitor operations, manage payrolls, and handle issues for my remote multi-family property.

Partnerships with people you don't fully know can get messy pretty quickly so in your scenario I would go to a local bank and get a construction loan.

You can try reaching out to local real estate agents as they often have access to off-market properties.

I see that you are local to the Grand Rapids Area.

I'd personally recommend a local lender for something like this.

A lot of out of state rental property investors and even local landlords prefer buying new construction homes that need as little maintenance as possible.

I hope to learn a lot here and maybe meet some local investors.