Newbie looking to invest in rental property out of state

[Sean Kelly]

Hello,

My wife and I have some money we are hoping to invest in single family and possibly duplexes for rental income.  We live in Chico CA and looking around this area there seems to be some deals but none coming close to achieving the 1%, much less the 2% rule and when we look out of state we are amazed how much more we can get for our money.  Right now we are debating possibly relocating to one of these areas to start purchasing property (or at least purchasing out of state and remaining in CA).   North Carolina is one potential area we are looking at.   So my question for the more experienced is if you were willing to move/invest out of state how would you go about figuring out what market you want to focus on buying in?  What resources would you use other than this great site!?