Advise on out of state vs local investing

[John Narmontas]

Hey everyone, I’m a fairly new investor living in LA. I currently own a 2 bd 1 ba condo in Long Beach which I’m renting out.

I want to buy a multi family property (ideally a 4 plex) but as you can imagine a 4 plex in Los Angeles is not cheap. I’ve been looking around the country and to me it seems that other cities have much better opportunities for me than in LA. Even with paying property management fees it looks like I can get way better cash flow in places like Dallas or Austin Texas.

The only issue is my GF and her mom are real estate agents in LA. They keep saying that I should just invest in LA and not try to find things out of state. Obviously it’s what they know and they would also get the commission if I bought local.

What are your thoughts on investing in LA vs out of state?

I bought my Long Beach condo for 268k which was a steal. My price range now is probably closer to 400k-700k