Not sure where to start my investing journey

[Shrikant Kakani]

Hi All,

I have been reading a lot of books and listening to a bunch of podcasts about real estate investing and I feel like I'm ready to take the next steps. The huddle I'm facing right now is I stay in HCOL (San Francisco) where investing won't make much sense due to high property prices. Hence, I have been exploring a few LCOL/MCOL markets, but I am not sure where to invest. Thus, I decided that out-of-state investing would make the most sense. Here's my research:

- I have been exploring Ohio and Texas, but the property taxes are extremely high and there will hardly be any cash flow. The same issue lies with Chicago as well.

- Then I checked out the Detroit market and realized that the job and population growth has declined in the past few years and landlords are finding it hard to fill the vacancies.

- Lastly, I checked out the Colorado market (especially Colorado and Colorado Springs), and the property prices are high there and hence, it won't cash flow there either.

Hence, while I want to begin my journey, I am not sure where to start. Maybe I'm overthinking? But being a rookie investor, I'm terrified and need help exploring the path to success. All inputs are welcome.

Thanks!

[Samuel Diouf]

I would do a lot of research to understand the true values and differences of cash-flow and appreciation. This will make it easier to determine what you're looking for in an investment. 

Columbus, Ohio is a great market to consider if you're leaning towards appreciation. I moved here from Florida after seeing the expansive growth in the Columbus market.

There are multiple billion dollar companies dumping money into the city, such as Intel, Google, and Amazon. And a lot of start-up companies are migrating to this city as well, because of the efficient costs of living, the OSU campus that has thousands of students graduating and looking for jobs locally, and the availability of land.

Everything that’s going on here in Columbus is attracting investors and other businesses from all over. A recent study showed that 80 people are moving to this city every single week, which will continue to increase housing demand.