What are the main economic drivers down there?

Knocking on doors of neighbors for example, may be helpful in finding people.

And they may not give you any breaks for living there.If just starting a 4 plex would be easier and better terms.I have seen where a 5 plex was turned into a 4 nominal plex by opening a door and calling 2 units one unit for the day of appraisal and the mortgage application. 

In ~3-4 years I should be able to pick up a house if I wanted after I own 4-6 doors of real estate which would allow me to settle somewhere with a wife and not keep moving every two years, or option B find a wife who gets investing and likes playing real life monopoly as we move up in property class.

I am just about to wrap up my first year of buy/hold investing, and I have seven doors in this market.I imagine there are some genius-grade new investors who can get everything running right out of the gate, and for whom out-of-state investing would be easy.

The BEST way to get your foot in the door is to monitor it yourself, wait for the property to go vacant (even before it goes to foreclosure auction) and call that Broker or whomever is listed on the "IN CASE OF EMERGENCY" sign on the front door or window-- this is standard requirement again for most banks, placing that sign.4-Equity firms- Here's some good news...

Recently I have been taking an accounting course, and realized why the banks pour thousands of dollars into these more distressed"houses", that are sometimes no more than a shack with 4 walls and a door.

The two easiest drivers of that idea is (a)  You are acting like one so you should license up to get educated on what it actually means to lend in your state along with any compliance you need to follow.  

I am sure you would have a line out the door.

There are a ton of bad drivers on the road each day.