In this day and age with all the technological advances out-of-state investment has become so much more simplistic and easily manageable. Sure, obviously the right property management team is still absolutely imperative and boots on the ground connect or home town buddy with the connect is a serious bonus but with all the technology at our fingertips like never before it’s truly made buying out-of-state an open vessel for wealth and prosperity for your average property investor. Granted you still need to figure out which markets are performing well or on the verge of but even that has become much easier via all the latest gateways. The technological advances really do make researching the market so much easier. Finding connections so much easier. Finding the right rental property so much easier. Finding the right contractor so much easier. Watching over your investment that much easier. Finding conventional or hard money lending options that much easier. Finding refinancing options that much easier. Doing background checks on people your doing business with that much easier. Cross referencing your facts that much easier. Is there anything I’m forgetting?

Thank you technology

It is absolutely not easy to do any of this locally. Have you ever dealt with any of these people? 

Finding a contractor is HARD as it is. I would NEVERRRRRRRRRRRR trust a contractor when I am not right there to check on him regularly. OMG that alone gives me shivers.

Watching over your investment, is like watching over your first born baby. You do a FAR better job doing that yourself vs hiring someone else to do that. When it is your butt on the line and when it falls solely on YOU if something goes wrong... no managing company would do a better job than you would do.

Although all this personally is enough reason to hold back (a bit).. the simple fact that it is long distance is enough of a nuisance to think twice, opening that can of worms. But that is just me personally... 

Interesting first post. I have to agree with Jerryll on this one.

There are more tools and marketing methods available online than ever before. I'll agree with you there. In that respect it's an exciting time. 

But not being able to oversee a rehab in person is a big risk.

You're putting a lot of trust and likely tens of thousands of dollars in someone that you may have only chatted with on Skype or the phone. What if something goes wrong? Are you hopping on a plane to go rectify it?

Granted with that big risk comes potential big rewards, but also potential ulcers.

Because investing out of your area increases your risk considerably.

Also, I know California is ahead of the curve for a lot of things, but it's not 2020 yet in most of the world.

Because you have to place your trust in more and more people besides yourself, which increases the risk.