First rental property

[Yogev Finegoz]

hello everyone,

it's my absolute first time posting here and also my first time looking for a rental property. I'm looking to get in the business and trying to find the best location to invest in a property that's around the 175k range. Would love to here everybody's suggestions to where to buy and how you guys find renters cause there's nothing like the collective wisdom. Oh and would you suggest new construction or newer houses? 

thank you!

[Chris Boselli]

Hi @Yogev Finegoz, there are a lot of factors that determine where it makes sense to invest. If you are speaking in terms of what city/state to invest in, you must consider the state of the local market you are looking at. Things like steady population growth and steady job increases are good signs as they indicate more people are moving to that particular area and therefore housing demand should increase which drives up purchase/rent cost. Other factors like presence of hospitals and colleges and are strong economic factors that point towards a steady stream of renters for that area. If you are talking about a target city and what zip codes within the city to look at specifically, a good RE agent and PM should be able to help you with these decisions based on your specific strategy and goals. 
These are just a few examples but the main pieces of advice I would give for investing out of your own backyard is to do your research and spend time building a solid team of boots on the ground. I am from the Boston area and invest over 1,300 miles away in Memphis, but I definitely could not have started doing so without my local team in Memphis. A good agent and PM will be able to compensate for lack of local knowledge and should be able to pinpoint some good areas in your target city to invest. Networking with other investors here on BP is also a great way to get some solid information and advice (and for free). 
As far as where specifically to invest, that also depends on your goals. Many including myself like areas in the Midwest such as Memphis, Indianapolis, Little Rock, St Louis, Cleveland, etc because of their great cash flow potential. I am in the long term but and hold game and plan to build my wealth in REal Estate slowly through steady cash flow and loan pay down with any appreciation being a cherry on top. If you share similar goals, start by reaching out to some RE agents in these cities.

Hope this was helpful in some way, best of luck in your investing journey!