Looking to buy my first investment property

[Lolo Druff]

I am looking to buy my first investment property, and my goal is to continue building this portfolio every year until I can live off my rental income entirely. I have about $400K to deploy, but would prefer to buy several duplexes rather than 1 more expensive building. I live in CA but am open to investing anywhere that makes financial sense. Cash flow is important of course, but so is appreciation, so I want to ensure I have a balance of both. Is it wise to buy some units with high cash flow and low appreciation, and others with lower cash flow but high appreciation to diversify my portfolio?  

I was looking in Columbus OH but the market is so saturated and it's been difficult for me to find cash-flowing deals there. Any deal that I've found seems to have sold within the last 2 years, and its alarming as to why it's back on market again unless they have problems with the building and/or tenants. I'm open to all suggestions regarding different cities that meet my requirements and would love to chat with some realtors who have local experience working with investors. 

[Jonathan Greene]

When you say "open to investing anywhere that makes financial sense" you just invite everyone to pitch, especially when you also say you have 400k to burn so be careful. Anywhere that is high cash flow also means high cap ex and tougher tenant base for the most part so as a new investor, that's not going to be great. You have to do research yourself and consider where you want to invest, where you would want to go to see your properties. Right now, you are just saying - I have money and will throw it into real estate anywhere that someone says is good. You will get too many charlatans. Just mentioning Columbus is going to bring your DMs to the brink of melting down.

Ask yourself why real estate? Make a list of every place you have ever lived and where all of your best friends and family live and see if any of those markets overlap with "good" markets that you see on lists. Then you have a competitive advantage.