Where to buy properties

[Payton L.]

Hello BP! I am pretty much brand new to real estate investing, so I'm full of questions but this is the one I am currently debating. 

Is it better to buy in one area, or multiple areas? (if the math makes sense of course) Also, is there any advantage to owning a large volume of property in a small area? 

For example, we have purchased 2 homes so far in a very nice 3 college town. It's hard to find homes that meet our criteria of 1% housing. There is a lot of competition and many that the math works on, need some work. For example, our first but we got for $85K put 25K in and are currently renting it for $1200. The second buy we paid 80K and are putting 5-6K in it. We bought it already occupied paying $900 on a M2M. After repairs we are going to move up the rent to $925. 

My realtor, who I have been very fortunate to find, has found a duplex in another area that is more rural but I am very familiar with. We are about to put in an offer on a duplex for 100K that needs maybe 5-7K worth of work that is currently renting for $800 per side (though utilities are included). Once I started looking there were a few other homes that would meet our 1% criteria. Most going for around 75-80K and renting for 750-800 monthly. 

I guess I'm just wondering mainly if there's a benefit to owning most of the properties in a consolidated area. Like if we ended up owning 50-60% of all the rentals in the area. This may be a silly question but since I've been crunching the numbers on this offer it's been on my mind. 

I'll appreciate any feedback! TIA