Looking to Purchase Outside of California. Any advice?

[Kayla M.]

Hello everyone! I just joined BiggerPockets and I am excited to interact with a community of people who don't think I'm crazy for wanting to invest in real estate. I've been told so many times that it's a bad idea and it just doesn't seem that way to me. 

I know it's recommended to start in your local area and that's just unrealistic for me. I'm interested in buying single family homes for under 100k outside of California (because it's obviously impossible in CA). If anyone has any advice and could recommend good, safe cities and states to start in that would be amazing! Also, if anyone has experience and is in a similar situation I'd love to hear about your experience as well as get references for great property managers in your area, contractors, realtors, etc. People that hustle, are responsive, and great at what they do! 

Maybe I'm crazy in thinking that buying out of state for under 100k and still getting cash flow is possible. If this sounds unrealistic and highly unlikely let me know! I want to get into real estate out of state, I just want to learn from people and get advice first. I look forward to hearing back from yourselves! :)

[Matt K.]

Originally posted by @Kayla M.:

Sorry I goofed up the tagging. I'm still figuring out this discussion set up. Lol!

I haven't found anything that interests me yet. I've been looking for about 3 months now. I want under 100k, single family home, in a safe area, with a growing population. That sounds too perfect and I don't know which of those 4 things is least important because I know I can't have all of them. Maybe I'm being too picky, maybe I'm stuck in analysis paralysis, maybe it's something I haven't figured out yet.

What is your experience in real estate investing? Is there experience in purchasing property? I'd love to hear about your experience, even if it's different than what I'm looking for.

Post up some of the areas you've been looking out the deals you've found? I can tell you when I started I was all over the place trying to find the "best" spot to invest... but "best" doesn't do anything. There's always something "better" and I soon realized I needed something that worked for me. I ended up picking KC, variety of reasons... but mostly because it's easy to get to from CA and at the time (few years ago) it was affordable. 

It's still affordable now, but everyone wants that sub 100k house.... and not everyone really cares what they pay for it.  If you're chasing OOS rents... you want something that's quality and in demand... not something that's cheap. 100k in KC for a house, probably not going to get you a "great" fit because it'll likely be older (read that as maintenance/repairs), probably small and 1 ba (read that as turnover as tenants outgrow the space), and it'll likely be near or in the ghetto...

Now a townhouse/condo/half duplex.... different story but also WAY different niche than SFH.

As for me... good schools and 2 baths or good night life and 2 bds... popular area w/ something that fits the lifestyle. I also don't like to do rehab myself, rather let someone do it while back and have it be serviceable for renters... and then I can upgrade in future before I sell to current market trends..