Take your time, spend the money, invest your time and energy into actually coming to the market, sitting down with these brokers, property managers, other investors, go to networking meets, get in the market, get face to face, belly to belly with the brokers. , trust me, if you fly the way all the way from California to Raleigh, North Carolina, , the broker in Raleigh is probably going to consider you a serious buyer since you just spent, you know, a couple thousand bucks and, you know, three, four days to get there.

Based on your time, energy and capital you have to deploy will dictate where and what strategies you can use.  

I tossed LEED in favor of Energy Star as it seems easier to achieve.

The best cities to invest are the ones that fit your budget, time, and energy. 

I love the passion and energy!

What is the time and energy you're willing to put into it?

We just want to move into that energy efficient house and be done with this. 

There is also VinFast, WolfSpeed, the Toyota Battery Plant, ... large pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers, energy producers, and a diverse cross section of other industries who are moving to or expanding within an hour of Raleigh.

All this time and energy spent vs picking up the phone, calling tenant and saying "Oh hey, curious where all this is coming from, kinda caught me by surprise".     

I've met various scopes from vesting title to 150+ year land-patent research for the oil and gas/energy industry, as well as power and pipeline ROW (right of way).However, I've started researching some foreclosure title for myself and to help some flipper friends in return for investing advice.