Advice On Picking A Market

[Brandon Beck]

Hi All,

Excited to be starting out on my investing journey! I have been in the education phase for about the last 8 months and don't think I will be ready to purchase a property for about a year. 

My question is on picking a market. I would like to use an FHA Loan and try to house hack a property but homes in my current market (Santa Barbara, Ca) are on average about 1.5 - 2 million dollars. Even getting into one of these properties with a 3-5% loan is still going to cost a lot of capital. My question is - should I focus on an out of state market that is less expensive for me to get into?

I am a Project Manager for a Residential Design Build contractor so I know my way around construction, working with subcontractor's, and estimating projects. Should I use the skills I have to try to BRRRR a property out of state? If I were to invest out of state I could shrink my investment timeline as I already have enough capital saved up to invest in some states.

Any advice is greatly appreciated, thank you!