Need help determining where to get my first rental property

[Ahmad N.]

Hi everyone, this is my first post here :) .. Recently I've developed an interest in rental property investment and am trying to figure out what resources/factors to consider when determining where in the US to get it. Since the purpose would be to put it up for rent, the obvious goal is to target a city where rent/price ratio is high (or price/rent ratio is low). But there are other factors, such as choosing a city where rental laws are favorable for tenants, there's a decent amount of population (to make sure there would be renters), the economy is good and chances of rent and property value appreciation over the coming years is high.

My question is what other factors should I consider ? And what's the best way to determine what such cities are that I should be short listing ?

My budget isn't that high (maybe about 250k), and I'd prefer to simply buy the property via cash instead of having a mortgage, so I'd be more interested in cities where median house prices are below 250k.

I'm looking at Dallas, TX and it's surrounding area, but I'm also wondering what other cities in the US I should consider. I'm myself based in Seattle, WA, but sadly the market here is way too $$$ for me :)