New Out of State Investor - markets analysis and off list deals

[Daniel Petta]

Hey everyone

first time posting on here and I want to say it's been great to read all the forms and appreciate how this is such a great form to get information.

I've been using my covid down time while working from home to focus on getting into passive income generating multi-family real estate investments. I live in California and it seems too rich and weak cash flows from my perspective so looking to break into out-of-state.

I have long-term aspirations to own these rental properties so seeking strong cap rates, cash flows and minimal appreciation. Seems to me biggest bang for my buck would be multifamily when it comes to cash flow and also think apartment complexes would be good but not for my first few deals.

I have stock investments that I want to transition out of and put into the strategy and currently am analysis paralysis mode for sure but thought I would ask some more questions. 

being that I'm going to look out of state curious if there's other people that have done this and if so do they regulate themselves to get economies of scale and only look to purchase properties in single market {period} I don't know how much economies a scale you get with a property management company but that to me seems to be the only scalable cost.  For me I kind of want to go where I know the deals are but at the same time I can appreciate knowing the lay of the land in these cities which I know is already in a challenge for an out of state investor. So would love to hear any kind of feedback you have for someone in my position when trying to determine first steps when it comes to market analysis. 

Also I've been skyring real estate apps such as zillow, redfin, loopnet to find deals but I guess since that many of the better deals would be found off market or through direct campaigns which I don't know where to start with seeing as that I've never bought a home and I'm out of state.  I tried to join local groups around my town but amidst the pandemic it's a challenge and I'm also not interested in investing around where I live at the moment so not sure how to break into an identify properties that are off listing services. 

Thanks everyone in advance for your feedback!

Daniel