Help needed in deciding a market!

[Vivan Bhalla]

Hi everyone,

Very recently I made a post on the forums as I have around 50k$ saved and looking to start out. My aim with that post was to get some idea on how I can proceed and which market should I buy in. My long term goal is to have enough cashflow to retire and then never worry about 9-5 (Goals of a lot of other people). Few things that I learned from the very initial posts and some of my questions:

1. One market that has been popping off a lot is Ohio. A lot of people are giving me good advice about the Ohio market. Is this the next famous market? 

2. Famous markets like AZ, FL, Texas are not being mentioned by anyone. I guess they are saturated?

3. STR is also looking as being saturated. People prefer getting into long term rentals as a way to make stable and sure income. Would need someone to comment on this?

I am considering Ohio, Oklahoma city, Pittsburgh and SLC. I have friends living in Ohio and Pittsburgh and can use their help with stuff. I have a real estate agent whom I know from a long time in Oaklahoma city and that is why I am considering it. SLC came in my search and I have just kept it in mind. I know no one there though and have never been. What do you guys think from the markets I have? How should I choose one?

My journey resembles a lot of REI journey and with these post I aim to teach others on how they can do the same (once I achieve my goals).

TIA

[James Wise]

Quote from @Vivan Bhalla:

Hi everyone,

Very recently I made a post on the forums as I have around 50k$ saved and looking to start out. My aim with that post was to get some idea on how I can proceed and which market should I buy in. My long term goal is to have enough cashflow to retire and then never worry about 9-5 (Goals of a lot of other people). Few things that I learned from the very initial posts and some of my questions:

1. One market that has been popping off a lot is Ohio. A lot of people are giving me good advice about the Ohio market. Is this the next famous market? 

2. Famous markets like AZ, FL, Texas are not being mentioned by anyone. I guess they are saturated?

3. STR is also looking as being saturated. People prefer getting into long term rentals as a way to make stable and sure income. Would need someone to comment on this?

I am considering Ohio, Oklahoma city, Pittsburgh and SLC. I have friends living in Ohio and Pittsburgh and can use their help with stuff. I have a real estate agent whom I know from a long time in Oaklahoma city and that is why I am considering it. SLC came in my search and I have just kept it in mind. I know no one there though and have never been. What do you guys think from the markets I have? How should I choose one?

My journey resembles a lot of REI journey and with these post I aim to teach others on how they can do the same (once I achieve my goals).

TIA

I feel like a lot of folks on BP are spending too much time on which market vs what to buy in a market. What to buy in a market is going to have a bigger swing on the performance of your investment in my opinion.

Knowing what's what in the markets you are investing in is the biggest thing. I see you're looking at Ohio. Most everyone looking at Ohio ends up looking at Cleveland. Cleveland can be a tough nut to crack. Out of state investors can make a lot of money here, but they can also make some major mistakes as well. For every investor I see killing it, I see another one screw up royally by buying a property using the wrong comps or something like that.

The level of risk in Cleveland will vary widely based on the neighborhoods. Trying to compare one part of Cleveland to another can be an apples to oranges scenario. As such, I wrote The Ultimate Guide to Grading Cleveland Neighborhoods to help out of state investors out. The idea isn't to tell you what to buy, just to give you the info you need to assess the risk vs reward of what you are buying if you decide to look further into this market.

Good luck out there with whichever market you choose. Hopefully others can chime in with some in depth info on their markets like I've done here. Really give you a good base to go off of.