First Residential Property - Should It Be Local?

[Daniel Gabler]

Hello All,

First time poster, but have been lurking for a few months. Over the last year or so I have slowly read about REI. I have read a few different guides and short books and am starting to feel more confidant in the lingo, the numbers, handy rules, etc.

I have been saving up some money outside of our retirement accounts, it is currently invested in public markets, with the plan of one day purchasing a Residential Single or Multi Family Home. 

In an ideal world, I really want the first property to be local (Within an hour drive or so), because I want to learn as much as possible about property management. The problem however, is that we live in a pretty high COLA area and I am struggling to find any properties that come close to anything described as attractive i.e. sub 1% rule, above 9 for GRM. Every time I seem to d a calculation based on what I think are fair purchase/rent prices, I struggle to find positive cash-flow properties once I account for debt servicing and expected expenses (50% of Gross Rents).

I was wondering if anyone has ever made their first REI in an out of state property, or at the very least, a 2-3 plus hour drive away property? I would like to avoid hiring a property manager for a SFH, but if it's not local I do not see many other options.

Ultimately, this could be an indicator that it is not the right time to be investing in my geographic area, but I am new to this and wanted to hear others thoughts.

Thanks.