Long distance rental vs Turnkey rental for newbie?

[Beth Barnes]

Hi everyone! I’m a new investor looking to get started on my first property. I live in a very expensive market (NYC) so I’m evaluating long distance markets as a place to get my feet wet on a smaller deal. I’ve been reading like crazy to learn as much as I can, but it’s still intimidating to find a deal, place an offer, manage rehab, find property management, etc with no experience.

Because of my inexperience, I’m also evaluating turnkey properties as an easier way to get started. Although the return would be lower, at least I could get started relatively easily without finding management and tenants, managing rehab etc, and hopefully I can gain confidence and learn along the way.

Does anyone have thoughts on a long distance rental vs a long distance turnkey as as a first investment?

For further context, I plan to purchase in early 2020, and by then I will have 50k saved as well as a 12k emergency fund.