Out of State Investing Louisville Kentucky vs. Kansas City Missou

[Thomas Garcia]

Hello everybody! This is my first post and I am excited to be here. I currently live in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I house-hacked a single family home for 3 years and have been renting out the entire house for the last 2 years as my own property manager. Although I have somehow managed to attain $100k in equity thanks to appreciation, it technically has negative cash-flow after CapEx, Vacancy, and Repair evaluation. After analyzing several deals, I have found that 99% of the properties in my area do not cash-flow, meet the 1% or the 2% rule. It was pretty disappointing.

I have decided that I would like to pursue out of state multifamily buy and hold investing. I will be primarily searching for cash-flow generating 4-plex or higher residential properties. I have narrowed my search down to two cities that I wouldn't mind retiring in. Those are Louisville Kentucky and Kansas City Missouri. I will be scheduling a vacation this year in each city to better understand some of the neighborhoods and communities for REI. I have done some macro-analysis in each city but would like to know if anyone from the BiggerPockets community has a locational preference. Are there any large potential changes that would make it more appealing to invest in one area vs. the other?

Thank you in advance.

-Tom