How to narrow your search location?

[Jason Lee]

Good Day All, I'm looking for a little advice on how some of you narrowed/focused your search location. I've owned a few rentals in the past, but more by accident rather than a conscious cash flow centric strategy. I did well on both when I sold but neither cash flowed. I just got lucky with appreciation. My wife and I are now focused on acquiring our first cash flow positive property. We're in the Dallas area. we've been looking in and around college and military bases and there are some decent opportunities IMO. But we're not at all married to investing only in our area, or even in Texas. My question, is how some of you approached this conundrum? While my area of the country isn't super expensive, there are other areas such as Memphis, Cleveland, Indianapolis, etc... that would allow us to buy a duplex, triplex or fourplex for the cost of a SFH here. there's certainly down psycological comfort in having a property that we can drive too, but after reading @David Greene's book on long distance investing, it almost seems silly to only focus on areas we can drive to. looking out of state also opens up so many markets that it feels overwhelming. just looks for some advice, suggestions or even just to hear a few stories on how some of you narrowed your search. Did you just pick a market and focus, or do you base your search more on the property and be willing to invest wherever the "deal" leads you. Thanks in advance for your responses, I look forward to hearing your answers.