Choice of market for a beginner

[Kokou F.]

Hello BP community,

Kokou here from San Diego CA and I am glad to be part of the BP community. Totally new to real estate investment with zero experience and zero deal under my belt, but I am already a PRO…well…at least so says my BP badge… :) Thank you BP and the community.

I have done lot of research, reading and listening to educate myself on RE investment, yet I am unable to select the right market in which to start my journey. If some of the experienced investors here on BP could help me narrow down these possible markets I have been studying that will be awesome. Of the list below, please suggest in your opinion:

• the top 3 markets for best cash flow for an out of state investor
• top 3 markets to focus on flips or applying the burrr strategy

- El Paso, Texas

- Harrisburg-Carlisle-Lancaster, Pennsylvania

- Atlanta, Georgia

- Des Moines, Iowa

- Kansas City, Missouri

- North West Indiana, Indiana

- Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, Arkansas

- Chattanooga, Tennessee / Georgia

- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

- Jacksonville, Florida

Hope my question makes sense  :)

Thank you all.

[Dan H.]

Best market for you to BRRRR is San Diego area? Why?

• First rehabs are difficult enough without being OOS.  I could not imagine doing my first rehab OOS.
• You can leverage your local knowledge of submarkets.
• If you are BRRRR your goal is to extract out all or virtually all of your investment so the cost of the property is mostly irrelevant as long as you can obtain the financing and achieve the goal of being able to extract virtually all of your investment.
• None of the markets that you listed above have the historical ROI of San Diego. Around 50% of my purchases have infinite ROI because I was able to extract 100% of my investment. A couple other of my properties came close to having full investment extracted, one failed only because it got an absurd low refinance appraisal. I have one property that if I were to refinance I would easily get all of my investment back out but the terms on current loan are too good for me to desire to refinance. Even without addressing how easy it can be to extract all of your investment, San Diego ROI has historically been outstanding due to outstanding rent and property appreciation.
• No rent control. The Core Logic list of cities by ROI this century has San Diego #3 but San Diego is the only city in the top 3 that does not currently have rent control. It bodes well for San Diego to perform better than #1 (San Francisco) and #2 (Los Angeles) going forward.

I would be real leery of trying a remote BRRRR prior to having experience in the remote city and a trusted team.

Good luck with whatever you decide.