Bay Area Investors: Sacramento vs. Austin?

[Bei He]

I bought my first investment rental property in Sacramento last year. Class B neighborhood, 25% down and currently $150/month cash flow positive (not account any repairs since we did pretty much all repairs when we bought the property). 

This year, I started to look at Austin, especially Milwood area near Apple campus. Yes I feel more tech are moving to Austin and compare with Bay Area price, Austin housing price seems really good lol. However I'm having trouble to have the numbers to make sense. Compare with Sacramento, the home price and rent are similar. For example $300k range SFH, rent ~$1800. However Austin has much higher property tax and also home insurance. Plus I can manage the Sac rental myself vs. PM company will charge around 70% first month rent + 8% of every month after that....that just wipe out my hope to get the rent cover expenses after max 35% down..

Plus I also feel Sac rent are going up vs. Austin rent can't even catch the property tax up $$. 

Any Bay Area folks looked at Austin? Do you have any success story to share? 

[Frank Wong]

I think if the returns are very similar staying in the Sacramento market makes a lot of sense.  Nothing like investing a few hrs away.  

Austin has seen tremendous growth in the last 8-10yrs. Personally, I wouldn't buy Austin because of Apple, what I would do is look at the submarkets and what the ripple effect will be.  That is where the gems and investment opportunities are. 

If you are going OOS there has to be a clear cut reason why you are investing there.  Most people invest OOS for better returns and lower price point.  You should only invest OOS if you plan to scale into multiple deals. Not worth the time, effort, and risk to buy 1 deal.  You don't have to scale right away. I think its best to buy 1 get a proof of concept then scale down the road, but the mindset needs to be 2, 4, 6 homes in 3-10yrs.