Finding a market to do a flip as a newbie - the question isn't what you may think

[Jennifer Wood]

I am reading J Scotts' book on flipping now.  Early next year, my husband and I want to do our first flip.  I believe we are in a good position financially to do so, but...not in Las Vegas where we currently live.  I am getting familiar with HOW to analyze a market, my main question is, if I am looking to do this out of the city (and maybe out of state), how do I decide whether I go to a neighboring city vs farther away?  I want to be pretty hands-on with managing my first flip, so being somewhere that I can drive 2-4 hours to see progress is tempting, but I can see that surrounding cities in Nevada may not be ideal markets to flip in.  When you were a newbie, would you choose a less strong but closer market to flip so you could be close enough to inspect, or would you take a strong market farther away?