First time investor needing some confidence!

[Benjamin Ying]

Hey all! First time poster here so let me try and lay down the situation.

My wife and I are just beginning our real estate investing journey. We live in California so I think the opportunities are better when it's OOS. Some areas I've been looking at are Provo/Vineyard, Colorado Springs, Indianapolis and Raleigh/Durham. Current timeline to purchase is probably 6-12 months as I start narrowing down and visiting some of the places to get a better idea over the next few months. Our downpayment budget is probably $60-$100k.

Questions:

1. Does focusing on macro trends (Population growth, rental and appreciation growth, good jobs) offset the 1% rule?

2. My friend is a big investor in Provo and has connections there. Would it make sense to reduce risk and use his connections first and invest it that area? Curious what experience others have had done.

3. Should I expand my target metros? These areas are relatively easy as a direct flight from SFO and one of the BP videos mentioned how it's a good idea to be able to fly direct if you have a OOS investment. For example, Columbus or Huntsville, AL has come up a bunch of times but I’d have to transfer.

4. Do you definitely need a property manager for OOS investing, especially as a first time investor? It seems like that would eat into the returns and you can't get positive cash flow for a while

5. Is it just a bad rule of thumb for an investment if you can't get positive cash flow for the first year or two? Or is this normal?