Bay area or out-of-state investing?

[Ian Lee]

Hello fellow investors!

I recently just joined the BP family and have been researching and educating myself on REI a couple months now. The biggest question I have now is - should I invest somewhere local (2~3hr drive) or out-of-state?

The market in the bay area is tough, and I don't seem to find deals locally that give me the right numbers. Of course I would prefer local for a sense of security and I can deal with issues if anything goes south. However, I would mostly have PM handle the property for me since I'm working full time and travel internationally often. So may be it doesn't make a difference local or out-of-state.

I'm currently house-hacking San Jose. My strategy is generating cash flow by buy-and-hold and I got about $150k to invest. I don't want to put it down on a single property (unless the deal is amazing) as I would like have the additional cash on hand to expand and diversify my portfolio quickly. 

Where would you guys recommend to invest in Northern CA and where for out-of-state?