Need investment strategy advice

[Shone Freeman]

I live and have invested in San Jose, Ca. I have a number of properties (SFHs, duplexes, condos, and a commercial property) here which have appreciated nicely and now cash flow well after many years. I also have a SFH in Bakersfield which has not appreciated and is under water on paper-but does cash flow for me so I just keep hanging on. My goal was to add a property to my portfolio every other year, which I have been able to do.

Investing for appreciation has always been my strategy due to where I live. I didn't really need the cash flow due to my occupation and didn't mind a break even or slight negative in order to achieve the appreciation. I have been doing this for a long time, in one way or another since I am a construction contractor.

I still don't need cash flow to live on, but since it takes so much money to jump into another property here, and I think the market here is closer to the top than the bottom, I am looking at other areas. Also, I am reconsidering my strategy going forward.

I have been checking out Indianapolis, Texas, Cleveland, Kansas City among others. There are pros and cons to going out of state.  Turnkey investing may solve much of the cons. But, it seems like by buying a turnkey, you run a good chance of buying a property at retail market price or higher, which means it may not appreciate for a long time, and unloading it could be painful.

I have about 150k saved up to invest at the moment and am looking for a good balance of CoC return and equity appreciation.

I would not plan to live off of cash flow from my investments for 10 or more years. So, what areas do you see that have good appreciation mixed with decent cash flows?

Are turnkey investments a good solution?

Would you recommend turnkey multi family, 4 plex or more?

Should I cash out refi some property here to leverage into another bigger deal?

I'm sort of stuck...