Deciding on first RE investment

[Paulina L.]

Hi all, I am new to investing. I'd like to get started this year, but a few questions on what may be the best choice for first RE as a way to bridge to more investments after. Would love other's advice on best first investment with ideal scenarios below:

Choice 1: Out of state investment (likely has to be anywhere between $75k-110k in purchase price), likely conventional loan, 20-25% down. I'm finding some ideal properties (I'm finding good market with decent cashflow OR bad market decent cashflow - however, as tempting as both are, I'm assuming either way to stay away from the latter. However, the former has been scarce).

Choice 2: Multi-family property (in CA), conventional loan/FHA. I would like it to be a buy/hold with cashflow - my issue with this is that most of the locations I am finding seem to be in great locations (high pop growth, high rent %s) but using the BP Analysis calculator the cashflow is either low or negative, is there any idea why that may be the case?

Q: Would like to hear advice on the above choices for first RE investment that would help with future investments (as well as any advice/answers on the questions in each!)