Stuck in a rut/need investor advice

[Bart J. Olson]

I started out with 2 duplexes and then bought a house.  I sold my 2 duplexes (mistake) in a 1031 exchange for one duplex.  I want to sell my house, get out of the mortgage, move into my current duplex and use that money from the sale of house to invest in.  I want to invest in MF, but the area that I live in does not have a lot of inventory and is competitive.  
Is out of state investing a wise idea?  
I guess as I am writing this, Im not entirely sure what else I would want to invest in!  Just putting this out there to maybe get a few ideas and meet new people/friends that are like minded!  

Thank you

[Ben Riechmann]

Well I am a investor that does not consider a house your best investment.  So let me start off with that piece of how I look at things to see how my advice is shaded.  Right now we are in one of the hottest, and sort of crazy, real estate markets we have had in a long time.  In areas where people often do not offer above asking price, they have been doing that all over the country.  That seemed to be more last year than this year, but it still seems pretty hot.  I would look for more ways to close different deals around where you are before going out of state.  This may require some more networking than just realtors.  

There are many places to find the deal you are looking for in your area you may not have looked yet. Loopnet is a good place to look for multifamlies that investors put online and realtors put online. It is a investor go to marketplace. I didn't realize when I first came on here that there were investors selling properties on here that you can look for in you area. You can call local proerty managers and ssee if any of their clients are selling any properties, and you may find a property and a management team all in one. I like when I go into a town to stop into a diner or hardware store in a nearby town find out who owns a lot of properties in town, and then call and talk to that person. See if they are interested in selling any or if they know of anyone. Let them know I am not a vulture capitalist but will give real fair offers. Title companes won't directly give you names, but after talking to some clients they may pass on your name as someone that would buy some or one their properties. Go to REI meetings and see if any investors want to get out of the game and want to sell their properties. If there are any local auctioneers that sell any houses, ask about any investors they see come to their auctions a lot, and maybe go to one of their auctions to me him or her to ask about places.

You know most about the area you are in.  When you invest out of state you need to develop a whole new team and learn a whole new landscape.  I recommend really farming the area you are now before going to that.  Even in this market there are deals to be had.  If you decide to invest out of state, I have helped people that have done so, and can give you some advice on that.  If you end up doing it in Ohio I can help even more.  I would first learn how to find different kinds of deals in your area.  How to finance different ones as well in different non conventional ways.  That is what I suggest first before trying out of state.