How do you start investing when living in an expensive area

[Ying Wang]

Hello everyone, I just started looking into properties that I could invest to achieve the 1% cash flow. I live in northern NJ which is close to the NYC. The typical 3b single family is above 500 k, but rent is around 3200 per month. It seems to be impossible to meet the 1% rule. In addition, the market is not hot and the house may not be appreciated at 3 % per year. Being a new investor, it is very difficult for me to start investing at the other states. I feel the hardest job is to find areas that you should invest. How do you start in investing when living in an expensive area? Are there any website or other resources that rank areas based on the ratio of rent to sale price?