Choosing areas of certain cities.

[Jason Jebeles]

Hi all, I am new to BP and also new to real estate investing. I live near Birmingham, AL and have so far done investing in a city about 45 min from Birmingham. I would like to move into the Birmingham market but had a question as I am searching. I have been advised in my searching that I should stay away from certain areas due to them being very low end and possibly higher crime areas. Even in the smaller town near Birmingham I have received these warnings. I feel like there are great opportunities in some of these places and I am pretty open to buying anywhere, but would love to hear some criteria that others use when buying in some of these labeled areas. Just for context as well my focus is buy and hold (rentals).