Choosing location and neighborhood

[Ty Meder]

Hey y'all. I'm 23 and extremely new to real estate and decided last week it's time to pull the trigger on a duplex (or start with single-family if I can't find a good duplex, then expand). I just moved to southern Florida five months ago from Ohio and I'm currently looking for a good area to start buying property. I'm pretty good at crunching numbers now due to my research over the last week, but I'm struggling with finding a good area to focus down on. I use statistic websites to see crime rate, increase/decrease in population, average salary, etc.. I got pre-approval for 500k, and I'm trying to figure out what area will get me the best return. So I guess this is a three part question:

1. Is a low-income area something to be avoided due to the headache of vacancy, bad tenants, crime, etc.?

2. Should I even care about neighborhood statistics online (besides vacancy stat), or is it not really important when it comes to rentals?

3. Does anyone know someone in southern Florida doing BRRRR / house hacking that can help me while I'm starting out? I'm consuming a ton of content online daily and listen to the BiggerPockets podcast, but I think someone local to the area I'm in will know information nobody else does, and they can steer me in the right direction before I make beginner level mistakes. I'm currently using realtors for advice, but at the end of the day they're trying to close a deal so they aren't going to save me from buying a terrible property. They're obviously going to advise me to buy real estate in the area they selling in. I also know they're sick of me asking them 1000 questions.

[Benjamin Sulka]

No way, lol. What's up Ty?!?!? 

I'm looking to buy a duplex near Cleveland and house hack this upcoming year! 

Use Meetup.com to find local REIA events or set up keyword alerts on BiggerPockets for "Meetup" + "Ft. Lauderdale" or "REIA" + "Ft. Lauderdale" so you know when local investors are getting together. This will be a great source of local knowledge for you.

To each their own, but my plan is to buy in a B-A area especially since its a house hack. I'll be living there and my girl will be living there. High crime/low income areas are off the table. 

Neighborhood statistics are definitely important. Particularly crime rate and average salary. It's a standard BiggerPockets rule of thumb to require a tenant's income to be 3 times monthly rent to mitigate any rent paying issues. Areas with low income are far less likely to meet this requirement unless you did section 8. 

If you do plan on house hacking, I wouldn't worry about what the returns look like while you're occupying the property. You really want to consider how things look after you move out. Especially if you're putting low money down, you can't expect to cash flow when you're occupying one of the rentable units. 

Hope everything has been well!!