New investor - How to narrow your analysis?!

[Kent Santin]

Hi BP! Excited to join this amazing community. Been listening to the podcasts for quite some time and quietly browsing the forums but this is my first post! 

I live in NYC and have 50-75k cash ready to put into REI meaning I can do 250-350k total pruchase (with rehab).

 I have a basic understanding OOS investing and want to take the plunge but struggling with how to narrow my search. Two questions really stick out to me:

1) do you believe it's necessary to be within a 2-3 hour drive incase something goes wrong? (This is my current thinking)

2) even in a 3 hour radius there are a lot of towns / markets to analyze. How did you arrive on a short list? Any tools you used? 

3) if I can't house hack is buying and holding for rental income the right approach or should I try to flip on my first go? (I have minimal construction experience) 

Thanks in advance for all the help! Really appreciate it!

[Adam Mitchell]

@Kent Santin if you are going to flip your first house it needs to be as close to you as possible. There are so many issues and decisions that need to be made, don’t compound the work by adding a long commute to the job.