Tips for Evaluating a market

[David Shull]

Hi BiggerPockets community! My name is David and very new to the real-estate investing game. My goal is to purchase my first property this year and am diving headfirst into learning as much as I can ahead of my first trial run. 

I'm currently based in San Francisco but from Michigan originally. Given the high barrier of entry in California I'm thinking of investing remotely in Michigan. I feel I know more (though not a lot) about that market compared to starting from scratch. 

Here is my question for the community - what factors do you look at when evaluating the health of a market from afar? 

So far, I've been looking Zillow, Trulia, etc at housing prices and comparing that with rental properties. I feel like this gives me a good gut feel of the market but it also feels like there is more I should be doing to learn about the long-term health of the market. 

Maybe I'm over thinking this? 

[Dylan Vargas]

@David Shull Welcome! Spent many year as a fellow Michigander! Depends on your goals. I love , LOVE, the cost of Michigan but California can have some great returns. If you are wanting to flip then you are in a perfect spot if you can locate a fixer. Houses sell fast in California and its a pretty sure thing (all things being equal). I get tempted for multi family in Michigan (Kalamazoo, Lansing, Grand Rapids) but am trying California first. I have been fortunate so far. I would recommend stay local first, see how it goes, determine what you want to do. Buy and hold, flip or? Good luck. What part of Michigan?