Choosing a Long-Distance Rental Property: Where to Invest?

[Sehyun Lim]

Hi,

I am fairly new to real estate investment. I currently live in the Midwest and am interested in purchasing a property in Huntsville or Chattanooga. I lived in the South for a while so I am comfortable investing in either of the cities. I have been researching the Huntsville market for some time now, and one day I realized that there were a lot of rental listings on Zillow that had been sitting for more than 100 days, which is a red flag to me. Then I looked up rentals in Chattanooga, and all the listings were relatively new, within 30 days. I'm not sure if this could be a major factor for someone like me in choosing an area to invest, but the statistics suggest that Huntsville has a lower overall vacancy rate. Any thoughts on this?