Picking a Location to Start Out

[Andrew Mokotoff]

My self and a friend live in nyc and each make a fairly high income. We have plenty of savings and are interested in purchasing a property anywhere from $300k to $700k. We are fortunate that we can get an interest free loan from family to start out with a 20% down payment. We have been crunching numbers and doing research on properties that seem to be profitable, even with conservative estimates. Our one question we keep circling back to is: where should we start? New Jersey, specially Newark seems like a decent place to start, as property values are fairly low and laws generally favor the landlord compared with NYC. We’ve also looked at Norwalk. Does anyone have any suggestions for how to pick a location? Ideally we will have everything automated and have a hands off approach with property managers, so proximity isn’t the most important factor.