Best place for buy and hold - Washington or elsewhere?

[Mary Wilson]

Hi everyone,

We live in Everett, WA and are looking to start investing.  It's almost impossible to find anything within 2 hours any direction that meets the 2% rule.  Fixer uppers are all well over $100K, which we can do but I'm not sure if it's the smart play. 

We are looking long-term and are most interested in appreciation over the next 10 or so years but obviously want the property to have a positive cash flow as well.  

We are open to out of state purchases but want to make sure we choose the right place as from what I understand you have to build a reliable team and it's harder to do that out of state.

I would love to hear opinions on this as I really appreciate that there is a lot of knowledge on this forum.   Thanks!