How Do You Pick A Market To Invest In?

[Ryan Huddleston]

I would like to start investing out of state. I live in Charleston WV, which is OK but the economy is very slow. I would like to identify some good rental markets to invest in but I am having trouble finding a good method to identify markets. Columbus and Cleveland look interesting. This is new to me and scares me, but I really want to tackle this fear and become comfortable with  investing out of state. 

How do you Identify good rental markets?

How much vetting of the neighborhood do you do?

[Linda S.]

@Ryan Huddleston,

The grass isn't always greener on the other side... I know nothing about Charleston, WV, but  I did a zillow search, and found a lot under $50K, which to me would be ideal!   Knowing the streets, neighborhoods, crime is a huge advantage compared to investing out of state.    

As far as vetting an area, we like trulia's crime map.. also, just analyze the current rental markets, where there are A TON, is often a bad area... and check the sex offenders list, that shows a bad area where rental qualifications are low.  

Also, let me just say...  where I invest, I say it eats investors alive, those who don't know the streets, where I invest has a bad reputation b/c people think they can just dump money and get some huge rate of return, without actually knowing the logistics.. again, huge advantage to actually be there and know the area!