Need help narrowing down markets for my first house hack

[Haley B.]

Hey there!

Soon-to-be investor here. My boyfriend and I have been wanting to invest in real estate for awhile now. Our lease ends in September, so we figured that's a good time to start.

We want to start with a house hack to get the feel for the business and eventually venture into more buy and hold properties.

Right now we live in Massachusetts and our market is very expensive. We haven't narrowed down a market yet but we have narrowed it down to a few states (I realize some of these are still expensive -- but we're also looking for a change!):

• Colorado
• Washington
• Oregon
• North Carolina

I'm wondering:

1.) Does anyone who's invested/lived in these states have any suggestions for affordable and cash flowing neighborhoods?

2.) Does anyone have any advice for choosing the right market? Or any research best practices?

I know this is a broad question but I've been doing a lot of research, especially since I don't know these areas well. My strategy so far has been looking up counties with the fastest growing populations, best schools, and also checking Listsource.com for zip codes with recently sold Absentee owned properties (trick I learned from Anson Young's Finding and Funding Great Deals). From there I plug counties/zip codes into sites like Trulia looking for reasonably priced homes. So far I haven't been getting great results and I'm no closer to narrowing down my markets!

I would appreciate any advice! Thank you!