How to know if a rental market is over-saturated?

[Nathan Schattner]

Hello BP Community,

I am not currently a real estate investor, but I'm at the point in my life where I'm trying to get my feet wet. My wife and I own a single family home in CA, and have enough cash to start investing in alternative avenues. I've been spending a lot of time researching Euclid, OH to potentially purchase a rental property between 80-100k (20% down). There are a few reasons I'm looking at this area. The waterfront development, and the Amazon fulfillment center which are close by.

Questions I have:

-When looking at Zillow, there are already many rental properties available that mathematically seem that they would cash flow positive. How do I know when a market is over-saturated for rentals? Key indicators, equations, etc. ?

-Is there typically a high rental property volume when near a high amount of manufacturing/distribution center jobs?

-What would be a decent cash-of-cash return percentage for first time investment?

-Things you wished you would have known when investing in your first rental?

We have no debt besides our current mortgage which is ~$2,400/month. We both have fairly high paying jobs so if there was a 10%+ vacancy it wouldn't be the end of the world, just looking to cash flow net positive on an annual basis.

I have experience renting out our primary residence on Airbnb. Considering short-term and long-term options.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you,

Nathan Schattner