New to investing - looking out of state

[Jason Rosenbaum]

Hi BP community! I am new and looking to get started in buy and hold with as much cash flow as possible. I currently have a full time job and am an active RE agent on the side (nights and weekends) in NYC, so this would be part time (for now). I am looking to go out of state in single or multi family homes and apartment buildings (6+ units included) because the NYC market is so expensive with little to negative cash flow. I have about $200k saved up to start investing and have been religiously studying RE investing for the past 6 months and am ready to get my feet wet! I am looking for advice on the following: 1. Ideas on where start looking to target a specific market (will probably take out a mortgage on my first investment) 2. Advice on how to landlord out of state especially part time - eventually I would look into property management but if I were to purchase 1 property to start off, it would eat right into my entire returns 3. How to source deals out of state. I understand I can build my lists for direct mail, digital marketing etc. but how can one actually educate themselves on a market when they are not present all of the time to drive around neighborhoods, network and meet as many investors, local RE agents, wholesalers etc. 4. I am assuming it is going to take at least 3-6 months to actually find my first deal. Would you still suggest traveling out of state every weekend to learn and educate myself? This would probably cost thousands of dollars over this period to travel this much, so I am unsure how to go about this. Any help/advice would be much appreciated. I look forward to becoming an active RE investor! Thank you