As is price point.. this will give you a better long term outcome.if you buy way under median your getting into renter dominated neighborhoods and schools for sure will be bottom ranked.. instead of going East have you considered Vegas.. lowest prop tax's basically in the country. no big weather issues  desert landscape super simple to take care of.. and Stucco homes with tile roofs no big thunder and wind storms to ruin roofs etc etc.. you can buy nice rental house there is a solid B location for about 300k. just worth checking out if you never have..

I'm a beginner investor in the High Desert.

Desert landscape.Postscript: I sent the contractor again for a maintenance inspection, and her husband was nowhere to be found.

In the desert.

Cash flow is negative, but virtually all MLS purchases in non-desert heat southern CA are cash flow negative and this has less negative cash flow than virtually all non-desert heat MLS southern CA properties. 

I'm looking primarily in Palm Desert and La Quinta, CA.

The desert of New Mexico is a more subtle beauty, brown and dusty, with all sorts of critters she wasn’t accustomed to.

.- Buying that first STR property in a “hot” vacation market that isn’t local therefore seems like one of the highest risk investments one can possibly make.I will not be surprised to see pain in several similar markets around the country, perhaps including certain desert locations that surged in popularity, certain lake areas, and the pain may extend to even areas like CO mountain towns, despite the fact that unlike the smokies, people do travel from all around the world and country to get there.

For particulars, you to invest in the desert areas driving distance to SoCal as you can get into them with 30-40k.

Particularly in the inland empire/surrounding cities of the high desert.