Picking the right city for investment

[Gandharv Kashinath]

Hi Guys,

It's been a few weeks since I found out about BP and I'm loving all the information that's on here. I want to get started with REI and I have saved up some money for down payment and other expenses. Since this will be my first investment, my goal is to buy and hold and hopefully get a reasonable cash flow going by renting it out.

After doing some general research on good growth markets I have narrowed down my choices to Denver, Austin, Portland, Seattle and San Diego. I currently reside in Albuquerque and with this in mind I'd like to know how I can narrow down my city of choice. Here are a few points that I'm mulling over;

1) I intend to hire the services of a property management firm so this will automatically be factored in to the cash flow.

2) In the circumstance that I need to travel to any of these places, I have found that Austin and Portland would have higher travel expenses only because they are not travel hubs (airports) like Denver, Seattle or San Diego. This will obviously feature in the expenses and will end up impacting the cash flow.

3) Based on proximity, I'm leaning towards Denver with all else equal since it's the closest city to me.

I would appreciate any inputs from you guys. If someone can share how they picked the city for their REI, it would be great.

Thanks a lot!

- GK

[Justin R.]

@Gandharv Kashinath I invest locally in SD, but only because I live here.  If you have the choice, there is *so much* learning and confidence that comes from buying and operating your first rental yourself - once you understand the business and intricacies, you can sell that one (or keep it) and you'll be 5 or 10 steps ahead of anyone who tries to startoff by investing "passively" out of town.  Go deep first, then go broad with confidence.

1001 POVs, but that's mine.