Hi Daniel,
Glad to see you're starting to hone in a market. First thing you need to do is find our what your goals are, are you buying for appreciation or buying for cash flow. Then pick a strategy you want to move forward with STR (Short Term Rental), MTR (Medium Term Rental) or LTR (Long Term Rental). Then you should create a buy box, essentially what a buy box is is a parameter of a property for example are you looking for a SFH (Single Family Home) or Small Multi Family Home (2-4 units) or Large Multi Family (5+) units. Also you want to look at job growth and see if big companies are in or moving to that area and if the population is increasing or not. Keep in mind you do not need to invest directly in a main city, the prices are usually higher and the lower price ones are not worth your time. Look for a property in the next city over to 30-45 min you can usually buy properties at a discount and still get close to the same rent if not a little lower, but you will most likely cashflow more. Personally what I'm doing right now is house hacking, I have a 2 bd 1 bth condo and run a MTR my second bedroom for traveling nurses because I live 1.5 miles from a hospital, I used Furnished Finder to see the amount of traveling nurses coming into my area. If you do this strategy you can essentially live in your home for free while your room mate pays your mortgage. Now this isn't the case for everyone for example I have a $2700 mortgage including property tax and HOA (if when you get a place avoid an HOA) but with my room mate I only pay $1600 which for the Bay Area is at par if not below rent, plus I get to invest an extra $1100 whether it's in renovations or in my high yield savings account for a down payment for my next property, which because I'm house hacking I'm able to move out and rent out the place after 1 year. House hacking is a great idea for someone that is just starting out, especially if you're living with your parents and looking to wove out.
