Starting out - how are you figuring out which market to invest in

[Al Lee]

Hi everyone, I've been reading here for some time now and wanted to take the plunge with my first post! I have limited experience from buying my current home in Los Angeles, CA (traditional SFH) and from buying/selling our primary residence in Seattle where I used to live, but am keen to learn more. I have some accessible cash to invest but it seems like I'm priced way out of the LA market. Based on this, I'm considering investing in other markets, with my general goal to buy and hold as a LTR to generate cashflow and build long-term equity.

I'd love to hear how others who are investing remotely in a place they don't know are figuring out which cities are good to invest in - what factors are you looking at?    After reading other posts here, I'm approaching other markets with caution, but as I want to keep my initial investment ideally under $80K down, LA doesn't seem to be a great option.  Based on population growth, climate, and friendliness to landlords I'm broadly considering Arizona (Phoenix?) or Texas (San Antonio?) but need to do a lot more work to narrow this down so would love any pointers from those more experienced than me!