When you are guessing/hoping for future events you have no control over, as the reason for holding something that is currently, and in the distant future, losing you money, is a BAD investment.

Hi investors! My mom and I are looking to buy our first property and we're wondering, should we start out local, and how good an investment are condos? We live in Maryland, near Washington DC and we've got about 100K ...

What is the usual, general, non-turnkey range of costs for a management company to manage one's distant rental properties?

From the exterior photos I have it looks like it would need siding, windows and landscaping now to be presentable, and probably a new roof in the not-too-distant future.

I doubt I will be a big buyer in this area however like I mentioned I figured I would give distant purchases a shot to see how I felt about them.

You need to be able to learn close by, so that later it is easier on you and your distant team member to communicate.Step 5:  Define success on your first time out. 

I know it has been mentioned multiple times on this thread already, but it can not be stressed enough; Read/listen to David Greene's Long Distant Real Estate Investing book before buying out of state.

I'm more in favor of using my "WHY" as my North star for driving incremental decisions as opposed to a distant finite number where I consider myself to have "made it".

Podcast 384 shows the risks involved when doing distant flips or BRRRR.  

One of the biggest challenges with working in a new and distant market is finding deals, since you now have to rely on the same publicly available information that the rest of the world has access to.