Considering buying rental property investment (newbies)

[Yulyana Karpava]

Hi! We'd like to start investing in real estate, have some money saved. Have no previous experience. But we live in SF bay area and the real estate market is crazy there. So we're considering other markets. Need some advice. While on vacation in Florida we looked into West Palm Beach area and visited a few properties there which seemed really nice. Does it make sense to buy an investment property that far away from where you live? One was a townhouse for $169,000 (2-bedroom, 2-bathroom) with a living tenant paying $1550. Another townhouse in the same association priced at $160,000(2-bedroom, 2-bathroom) but after eviction and needs some work to be done, like vanity replacement, tile replacement in the shower cabin and a condo at $100,000 (1 bedroom, 1 bathroom), little work to be done. It could be potentially rented out for $1100 as real estate agent assured us. But after running all the numbers, looks like the cash flow would be around $100 for any of it. Is it worth it? What is considered a good cash flow for a condo/townhouse?

Thank you!