COVID accelerated the work from home movement. 

If you have the right subfloor for tile, or are willing to replace what you have with what you need (plywood, hardibacker, additional labor), tile is the best product.Search youtube and BP for installation tips, but the basics are:-level, 3/4" subfloor - no movement (sometimes requires shimming or replacing joists)-layer of hardibacker or cement board -plan and play with your start/end points and layout with tiles before mixing any thinset/adhesive-aim to avoid "skinny cuts". try to have as many whole tiles and half tiles as possible-for floors: use a thinset (mortar based) product to adhere tiles to floor-for walls: use the thinset OR pre-mixed glue adhesive to adhere tiles to wall-after proper dry time, mix grout and apply to all seams.

@Rob Moran  mid west is a stable market were prices rise very slowly if at all.and with so many homes been turned into rentals values simply fall in line with what an investor will pay for a cash flow.. with the 1% rule being pretty universal.. so 800 rent 80k prop that type of thingwaiting for a correction would only help you if you have the ability to buy pre rehab rehab your self and then find management... the prices that HAVE moved are the wholesale prices in those markets but not a lot values are still low so if you have a 20% upward movement in wholesale prices like we have seen  the wholesaler house for 30k move up to 36k.. and if it moves down 20% same thing.Its all about RENT in those markets.. and 700 to 1000 has been the same for the last 20 years basically

As for the Real Estate, yes, it does go up forever, perpetually, up and up and up for eternity, yes, that is how inflation works and as their is more people their will be inflation as their must be more $ into the system for the more persons interacting in the system, this is how the economics of it work. 

Now you have all the DMM marketing companies pushing the movement that lists are awesome and DMM is awesome and it seems they themselves aren't friggin capable to deduct and analyse using simply logic for Pete's sake.The result?

As a fellow Long Island'er I def understand your reasoning behind out of state investing - however there is tremendous movements in the Long Island markets due to alot of different factors.