Thoughts about starting out with $15k in BRRRR.

[Brent Tyler]

Hi Bigger Pockets community!  I'm a complete newbie and just discovered Bigger Pockets!  My family and I just moved to the LA suburbs and bought our first primary residence. I just discovered the podcast on my 45 min commute. I've been listening for 3 months and have decided I want out of the rat race and need to invest in real estate.

I have a decent day job I enjoy, and am looking to supplement my paycheck with passive income. My long term goals are to BRRRR ~20 houses in the next 5-10 years. A few more months of saving, I'll have 15k to start. I also have a couple interested people looking to lend another $20k-$25k. I may have more private financing if I can show a proven track record with my first house.

The cheapest houses in my backyard sell for $300k, and rent out for 2k a month. I don’t have the time to fish for the best deals here, so I’d like to look somewhere in the midwest where I can buy a house for under 50k and not need to finance the initial purchase.  Then I can rehab, rent then look to finance through a bank on the tail end, rinse and repeat.

My questions are:

• How do I research an out of state market effectively?
• Should I be looking to partner with someone local in that market, or is investing out of state safe enough for a first time investor?
• I've been listening to Clayton Morris' podcast, and I feel like he's got a great strategy.  His buy and hold method seems like a good way to start out. Does anyone have experience with him or his turnkey company?

Thank you all for your help!

Brent