Metros like Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh, Tampa and Jacksonville have seen employment growth (both in terms of job numbers and industry diversification) and rent growth.

Are you more or less comfortable spreading your risk over multiple properties via diversification? 

@Murali MudddanCash flow properties, rent growth, population growth, job growth, job industry diversification (I.E. not being tied to one particular industry are great and disciplined investment criteria. 

Two schools of thought on diversification ... the alternate to what you describe being what I call the "Mark Twain" portfolio after the author of the quote "Put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket very closely."

Congrats on the first flip. the sunbelt continues to provide markets that include rent growth, population growth, income growth, job growth and job diversification.

More freedom keeps them less stressed, and more streams of income certainly provides greater diversification.

One misconception I would add: In some cases people just think of diversification across geographies, or across specific assets.

But they come at the price of higher volatility and lower diversification benefits, as they have a much higher correlation to the overall stock market than direct real estate investments.Read this article for more information https://www.investopedia.com/m...All the best!

Hey BP members,I'm a newbie investor looking to get started in the Albany Area/Capital Region of New York State.I currently live in a small town in Albany County that isn't really conducive to Buy and Hold Investing (houses that have been listed have been on the market for 100-300 days/not much job growth or attraction in the town).I was looking for an area in the Capital Region that would have solid job growth/diversification and get a good ROI.Any help would be appreciated.

They can get instant geographic and niche diversification, get into larger deals offering advantages over smaller deals (scale/forced appreciation) while they learn  how the big players operate and leverage that to do some of their own deals.