Determining Out of State Investing Areas

[Tim Lazor]

I am a new investor living and working in New York City. The market in my area of the country is obviously very expensive, so I feel that I will have more success with long distance investing. My goal right now is to find a smaller multi-family property in another state to buy and hold, possibly BRRRR if possible. I recently finished David Greene's book on long distance investing and I am looking to see how other investors have found which areas they ended up researching and investing. Have investors just picked an area of the country and then researched? Have investors found an agent first and then researched the area in which they operated? Any help would be much appreciated!!

Thanks!