"Investing where it makes sense"

[Lue C.]

Hi BiggerPockets Community,

I am new to real estate investing, and new to BiggerPockets too.  My immediate goal is to educate myself in real estate investing.  While I continue to research my neighborhood where I know best, I also want to explore out-of-state markets too.  How do I go about researching real estate markets that I have never been to and are out of reasonable driving distance? I have a couple of markets that I am interested in exploring.  What are the online resources I can research a particular local real estate market (zillow, realtor.com?), the neighborhood, the schools (greatschools.org?), the crime rate, the local economy and so on.  My feeling is that the more I know about a neighborhood (not just the real estate), the more comfortable I feel investing.

Any thoughts, help, good/bad stories are greatly appreciated!