What would you do???

[Joseph Tilly]

Hello BiggerPockets community!

I am what my culture likes to refer to as "fresh off the boat" when it comes to REI and to making posts on here.

I am looking for some advice/guidance on what I should do as I like to think I am in a unique situation however I’m probably not.

A little background- I am 29 years old and have saved roughly 225k to invest. I have been trying off and on to purchase my first rental property over the past two year however I have yet to actually close on one. I recently found BP about three months ago and it has opened my eyes tremendously. It’s actually showed me that it was good I didn’t close on any of the properties I submitted offers on as the numbers did not work in hindsight.

I currently live in a more expensive part of California where the average house prices (sfh) are roughly 650-700k. However there are occasional properties that I find that are in the low 400k range. Rents can range from 1,500 for a studio to 3,500 for a three bed two bath sfh. I am in the trades and can do most of the rehab myself along with the help of my father.

My analysis paralysis is, should I try to brrrr/house hack a sfh in my area (using hard money for the rest) or should I start investing out of state as my first investment? I like the brrrr method but is it a good method to start with?

What would you do?

TIA!