Selecting a geographic area

[Garlin Smith]

Hey BP community, I'm not sure there is an answer to this question but throwing it out there since I've quickly learned to respect the opinions and feedback from my BP colleagues... I've studied, listened, read and researched real estate investing the last few months and have my strategy and goals in place, but the last vital decision is WHERE to invest. My goal is to purchase several SFR in the $100k range with positive cash flow ($250+) and cap (10%) using a turnkey, shocker right? But there seem to be many cities that meet that criteria, so how do I decide where to invest . Also , if I were to purchase three or more homes, is it advisable to do it in the same geography or pick multiple markets to do it (i.e. Ohio, KC, Indiana, Baltimore, Birmingham, etc) Thx in advance for your thoughts

[Andrew Johnson]

Garlin Smith Is there any chance you have a friend, distant relative, went to college, etc. in any of these markets? It's always nice to have someone with *no fiscal interest* to tell you about a bad deal/area/neighborhood. Even non-investors know where they will and won't go at 1:00 a.m. You don't want to invest where they won't go...

Without that, you're really stuck using macho data like employment, population growth, median income, crime heatmaps, etc. The easiest place to start (for me) would be Wikipedia where you can see info even on smaller suburbs along with major employers, links to articles, etc.