I also invest out of state.The concerns you bring up are valid.

With time hopefully the numbers will be even more in your favor with appreciation of the property and you will have cash flow to continue to invest, also it is building equity in your portfolio that you may want to tap for opportunities in the future.

If you see someone violating the rules, create a post with "@moderators" and we will receive a notification and respond.Again, welcome to BiggerPockets and happy investing!

Hey all, I'm a Broker with 18.5 years of experience in the industry primarily centered around SFR and small investment properties.

My question is, when picking a good market, what are the kinds of things do you look for to determine if it is worth investing in?

Cool, what are you focusing on to pin down which investment strategy you're looking for?

If you haven't found a meetup, that's where we started to network with investors, as we formed our own groups to discuss investing.  

As stated by one of the respondents, this is a valuable experience for future investments.

However I am not sure its the best investment strategy for someone who is just getting started.

Every REI has a starting point, a build up phase, and an exit phase (this doesn't have to mean out of REI...it refers to cash).The key to determining this is based on an investment plan, and where the REI is in that plan.