Memphis vs OKC | OOS Investing

[Yves Yanuaria]

Hi BiggerPockets Community,

I wanted to get your thoughts on two markets that have caught my intention for what I hope to soon be my first out of state rental property.

I'm primarily interested in using the BRRRR strategy to create passive cash flow through buying small multi-family and single family rentals. Appreciation growth is a definite plus but I don't want to count on it if it means taking low to no cash flow. While Turnkey is a strategy I'm considering, I understand that Turnkey investments tend to be a little overpriced, not allowing me to maximize my returns. Also, with the nature of Turnkey being so hands off, I will not have the opportunity to gain more knowledge and experience in real estate which I would like to obtain as a new investor. The reason I may still be open to Turnkey is with working full-time at 40+ hours a week, I may not have enough time to properly execute a BRRRR.

I'm looking for properties in B and C+ neighborhoods. As I mentioned I would like to employ the BRRRR strategy so I'm looking for a fixer upper with potential. Ideally, I would like to limit my budget to about $150K all in. I'm anticipating purchasing the property for roughly $75K-125K and spending about $25K-50K in rehab. Those numbers are flexible if the right property/opportunity presents itself.

After doing some research, Memphis is a market that has initially caught my interest. It seems there are opportunities to fulfill the 1% rule and while historically Memphis has not offered much in appreciation, it seems to have been changing recently as home prices are now rapidly increasing.

However, while doing my research on Memphis, another that city that seemed to be recommended a few times that would be slightly more affordable, while also meeting my criteria above, is Oklahoma City.

I was hoping to get some feedback on these two markets from the BP community and hopefully connect with investor friendly real estate agents, contractors, and property managers you have had great experiences with. Being an out of state investor I'll need someone who I can really depend on to be my boots on the ground and not steer me in the wrong direction just so they profit off my long distance and inexperience.

I've been spending as much time as I can reading books, going through forums and articles, and listening to podcasts, but I'd like to make sure I don't get stuck in analysis paralysis and I get started with assembling my REI team. I know this is one of the most important early steps I can take and believe that having the right team in place will definitely help me advance in my real estate investing journey.

I have been house hacking my primary residence in Los Angeles since 2014. I should say that I have been unknowingly house hacking until I started reading books on real estate investing at the start of this year and found out it was an actual strategy. Haha. With the astronomical prices here in CA, I'm looking to out of state rentals to expand my real estate investing portfolio. I plan to use the equity I've built in my primary residence to get a cash-out refinance or HELOC to use as my capital for investment and potentially fund the deal "all cash".

Appreciate any and all feedback! Hoping this thread could also be of help to other investors that have some of the same questions I have. Thanks!