Where are YOU investing? - Need help with choosing a market

[Henry Murray]

Hi BiggerPockets! 

So I live in Southern California and I've made the decision that my best course of action is to buy out of state where I can get a better rent/price ratio than around Long Beach (or SoCal in general). I recently read David Greene's book "Long Distance Real Estate Investing" and it has a wealth of knowledge, but I've never bought property before and since I'm going to start outside of California I feel like I have too many choices of markets around the US. I'm looking for a relatively cheaper (<100k, or ideally <80k) move in ready or turnkey SFR or duplex in a market with good rent/price ratios and also where jobs are being created & people are moving to but I care more about cash flow than appreciation potential for now.

So my question is: Where are you investing right now?  What sort of rent/price ratio is typical where you're investing?  Are jobs being created and are people moving there? 

And then if you're investing outside of your home market, How did you pick your market? Word of mouth from other investors? US census data by zip code?? Zillow Research Data? 

Any information/tips you can share is much appreciated! 

[Caleb Heimsoth]

@Henry Murray I’m in Cleveland and Memphis. If you want multifamily go to Cleveland. If you are okay with single family Memphis is a good bet. I can find 50-60k houses that rent for 800-900 in Memphis all day long. B areas for Memphis. It’s worth noting though that B in Memphis May be different then CA.