3 City's, what one to invest in ?

[Jason Eberhardt]

Hello bigger pockets family. I am turning to you for some help and maybe even new ideas I have not thought of. I am a investor from Pueblo CO. And I love investing here and will continue to do so, my only issue is we do not have a strong multi family market ( like nothing is ever for sale ) so i have been looking at a few area out of state and would love some input. i am interested in apartment of 8 plus units or a package deal of duplexes that come up to 8 units. I would like to stay in the B class area and maybe I would look at some C class if it looked like the area was going forwards and not backwards and the numbers worked for that C class to make it worth the headache. I will have about 100K to 130K for a down payment so that should get me around a 500K or 600K property with 20% down. first place I am looking at is Kansas City and surrounding areas. Second place is Omaha NE. ( or Lincoln NE ) Third is Cincinnati OH. ( maybe Dayton OH ) Cash flow is King to me at this stage of investing, but with that said I love a good value add to any property. and would love to have equity. And a little appreciation would make things nice as well thought that is not my # 1 goal right now. with what I have describe what is a realist COC return I should be looking for ? like I said I am open to any and all ideas. even if it's telling me of better places to buy apartments. thank you for reading. Jason Eberhardt.

[Andrew Johnson]

Jason Eberhardt I think I'd start looking at places where you might have some tie. It doesn't sound like any of those are places that you've lived, places where family is, places where friends are, etc. In short, a place where you have some kind of data (even if it's a "gut feeling" of where the wrong side of the tracks are) that you can't glean from the ol' interwebs.

In your shoes, I'd start with those markets and then see how your desires (B-area, cash-flow, etc.) map to those markets. And it doesn't hurt (when you're an absentee owner) to have a friend that will just random drive by your group of duplex once every couple of months to see that they haven't imploded. Yes, you should be able to trust a property manager, yes they can send pictures, but having someone verify doesn't hurt either.

So that about sums up my bias. My bias also says to pick Nebraska. There no logic there, I'm just not wild about a lot of the rust belt. It's less about pro-cornhusker as it is anti-rust belt. Populations seem to be declining in many cities and you investors there solely to chase cash-flow. I'd rather have a city of 50,000 people with solid fundamentals and less cash-flow if I'm looking at a 10+ year investment strategy.

Others will disagree.