I agree with your thinking Leroy. I'm in Sydney & have looked to rural areas for investment purposes because the upfront cost is so much lower.
I recommend you start first by using the usual search engines at what's available to rent in the satellite towns around larger regional areas (particularly how many properties, at what weekly price, how long on the market, etc) and then call the agent/s. We decided to build in a country town and the tenants just moved in 2 months ago. So far it is going to plan and a much better proposition than investing in Sydney. As a side note, building was about $100k more expensive than buying one of the local properties in that town and renting it out but because we were not local, we didn't want to be stuck with maintenance issues and the tax/depreciation model was much more attractive.
I am now thinking about doing it again - but have my eye out for a bargain on an existing home to rent out (I haven't got time to manage a remote build again). Another issue to investigate is whether your lender will let you use the property as security. Ours was very wary and we had to use our Sydney property to secure the loan.
