I'm still a fan of West Coast appreciation although I know it's very difficult to buy in 2024 with very high prices.  

It is not very difficult or complicated to evaluate commercial real estate, there are plenty of good books available that can teach you how, textbooks, online courses, community college classes, even excellent youtube videos etc, and it is actually quite enjoyable in the process to learn.

I have referred a loan out of state based on NOI, cap rate at purchase, room for increase income and purchase price vs market value.Maybe I didn’t articulate the intent of the post as clearly as I hopedFor anyone who has bought multi family out of state, “what are gives you the warm and fuzzies about a deal”:Obviously not cap rate, but maybe vacancy rate,  Cash on Cash ,GRM, IRR, Unlevered free cash flow, Cities over 250k?

The taxes can make things difficult, but there are some things you can do to minimize their impact.  

AB 968 will make it more difficult for first-time investors to "flip" our quickly "house hack" homes since anything resold within 18 months.

If we rent the unit at $1,425, I have an estimated monthly cashflow of $302 (rent at $1450, cashflow is $325) I DO include vacancy, repairs, and cap exp in my Box2 Expenses.

You can test this, by asking some to SHOW you how they calculate ROI, Cap Rates, Cash-on-Cash, etc., for their clients.Many will say, "that's the investor's problem".They are correct because an investor should NOT rely anyone else to run their numbers.So, then what exactly makes them investor-friendly?

NOI: $49,536CoC ROI: 16.57% / CashFlow: $1488/moPro forma cap: 8.26%Purchase cap: 11.79%Check out breakdown below 👇🏾 https://www.biggerpockets.com/analysis/rentals/6c76954e-deb6... 

Further, assuming a 5 cap market, that would be a loss in evaluation of $1,000,000 ($5,000 x 10 non-renewing units for the year / .05 (cap rate)).

From an investor standpoint higher prices (lower cap rate) markets may be better places to invest because they will already have stable demand.