Advice please: Atlanta or Los angeles???!!!

[Michael C.]

So...I have reached the point where I'm ready to pull the trigger on an Investment property. I live in and work in Los Angeles but am also very interested in Atlanta for financial reasons. LA right now is very high priced but I'm not equipped to foresee what the future holds here as far as correction. I feel like I'm a couple years too late. This makes me think ATL might be a good starting point. I have a plan for each market I'll list them below. I have decent liquid savings dedicated solely to getting into my first property and 100k ish salary.

Los Angeles:

Small multifamily($500-700k?), house hack for long term rental ownership.

Not sure if could even break even let alone make a profit on the

lower scale properties I'm looking at in this climate but long term I believe

It's a great prospect.

OR

Distressed single family/townhome, house hack for rehab and long term rental ownership.

If I can even find this for the price I want. This is a great option but seems difficult to execute right now

Atlanta:

Small multifamily($50-200k?), straight rental property.(possible rehab)

There are many more affordable properties here but 25% down makes the

initial investment similar to Los Angeles. Also, property management will eat into

my profits. I can take a small loss monthly on a house hack that I live in but not a straight rental.

Anyone with insight or experience with a similar setup please let me know. Am I dreaming?

am I missing something. I want to decide on a market, once I do that my next step is deciding strategy.

As I said earlier, I am ready to pull the trigger but I'm not trigger happy. I'm super comfortable now with a low overhead so this will give me time to make REALLY GOOD and EDUCATED decisions.

Thanks guys

p.s. I accidentally posted this somewhere else before.  Sorry for the duplicate

[David Faulkner]

You don't think that ATL may be overpriced too? If it were, how would you know? Don't confuse price and value ... just because something is cheap does not always mean it is a better deal or better investment, the opposite is true too. If you lived in ATL, knew the market like the back of your hand, and could maintain local control over your investments there, I'd say go for it ... but you don't live in ATL, you live in LA, so my advice is invest in LA at least starting out, where you have home court advantage. Either that, or move to ATL and then start investing there. If you are going to give up all control and invest in RE remotely, though, then you should just buy a REIT and be done with it, at least then you'll be diversified, with a security with fully audited financial history, world class management, and scale.