First Investment

[Account Closed]

I live in Orange County, CA and I've been scouting the market for the last year and a half. Let me just start out by saying the inventory for foreclosures and short sales dwindled really fast and got eaten alive by shark investors. 

With that said, here is my question; I currently have $500,000 in liquidity and have started thinking about other markets/cities to try and purchase my first investment property, preferably a foreclosure, give it some TLC, then re-list it. For you veterans out there that have already done so, would you ever recommend investing in other states or have you mostly stuck to properties of this type to the surrounding areas of where you live?

There are still deals out there to be had in Orange County however most of the really good ones that can purchased and flipped are in the $700-800 range. This leads me to my next question...

With $400,000 in cash, could one hypothetically still get their hands on a property in the $700,000 range by financing the rest, including remodeling cost? If so, this would pretty much enable me to stay local and take a shot at my first property rather than resorting to other places.