Sacramento, CA vs. Little Rock, AR
My husband and I are trying to determine the most viable market for us to get more involved in REI. We are primarily looking into two metro areas: Sacramento, CA and Little Rock, AR. Here is the summary from our prospective. We're hoping you can help us out with additional insight.
Sacramento Pros: We live here, can network easily/do some of the due diligence in person, have a better change of the properties appreciating
Sacramento Cons: We don't know as many people in the industry, the contractor we like is booked 3+months out for larger projects which doesn't seem uncommon for the area, we have demanding/long hour day jobs that would limit the amount of sweat equity equity we can put in, higher barrier to entry/ability to scale with our capital (due to contractor timeline, competition, price point etc.)
Little Rock Pros: We used to live here and have a number of contacts in the area including a realtor that we trust, the price point is low enough that we could scale quicker by not having so more tied up in a single property, favorable landlord laws
Little Rock Cons: Appreciation is almost non-existent at least in the neighborhood we used to live in (which is tied to top schools), we aren't close enough to do any of the leg work/would have to rely on others/wouldn't be experiencing the trends the same way as living in the area, a chunk of the networking would have to be done from afar vs. in person
Thanks in advance!
Most Popular Reply
Its simple really...
If you want to invest for appreciation, invest in Sacramento... If you want to invest for cash-flow, invest in Little Rock or other Midwest communities. The best cash-flow deals are in the Midwest in B/C and blue collar neighborhoods, not necessarily in the AA or A neighborhoods with the best schools. I live in an AA neighborhood, but I hold zero other properties here. All my cash-flow properties are in B/C & blue collar neighborhoods or communities.