I invested out of state sort of accidentally, but learned a lot. My kid graduated in a city with a depressed housing market, and planned to work and live there long term. It seemed crazy to me that kid would continue to pay some landlord instead of me (can you say passive losses?), so with family help, I purchased a rowhouse to rent to kid at market rate (therefore, a very modest rowhouse). So this is not typical, I really know my renter, but this is what helped me:
1. I hired a well-rated local contractor to go around and look at houses with me with the realtor, in a one-day sprint. He charged $xxx per house, much less than inspection, with the hope of being hired for repair/remodel, which he was. I literally handed him an envelope full of cash on house viewing day. This saved me inspection costs on multiple houses (I inspected the one I made an offer on) and eliminated dud houses.
2. I bought a house with problems, but not such a level of problems that I was out of my league (blind auctions, tax lien sales would have been beyond me). This one had a ton of deferred maintenance, huge lien and judgment balances that were paid at closing (it could have been seized by the city at any time), and the closing was delayed twice, once when a new lien surfaced and once when (I am not making this up) some dude broke in, changed the locks, and fraudulently rented it out. The police never found him but they kicked out the "tenants."
3. I hired a well-rated local real estate attorney. My real estate agent was clueless once things got complicated, and I was not familiar with state and local laws and regulations.
4. I did an all-cash deal which allowed me to compete with the flippers prowling the same neighborhoods.
5. Because of the deferred maintenance that I had to do, I was forced to find an excellent gang of go-to repair people. Glad I have them now.
6. I researched like crazy to get a decent house on a good street in a low cost neighborhood.
7. I can get there by car the same day if I have to.
8. And, as noted and as is not usual, I have an awesome tenant who is very invested in the house's future (since they will likely either buy or inherit it from me)