Decent growth, and most of my friends still here are working great jobs with tons of opportunities.

Hello,I am working on my first deal to get a 2 family home in Newark from a friend of a friend.

I have a good friend who lives in Ashland (works at Shakespeare festival), and would love to learn more about the Oregon market.

I always suggest young individuals who want to get into it , have to live in the city, and only have the cap to put 3-5% down, to buy a condo or even better single family house and rent out the rooms to friends or even potentially AirBnB, if you have the single family house.  

Just in case you are still looking or might need to in the future, I can highly recommend two contractors I've known for years- one has been a family friend for 30+ years named James Barnett; he has done many projects on my family home; and the other is a friend of 8+ years named Adrian Jorge.  

@Michael LeeSorry to offend...just saying that starting a new guy on someone down to earth is probably better. 

Sometimes a tenant will play your friend in order to avoid a rent increase.

I have several lawyer friends and they all said gary.

Anyone near me could give me some investor friendly realtor or broker referrals!!

Price / Rent Ratio - lower the better Avg Median Income - feeds into #2, not as important on its ownAvg Median Price - feeds into #2, not as important on its ownAvg Median Rent - feeds into #2, not as important on its ownRent % of Income - rent should be >1/3 of incomeSociodemographic Rank - should be high (used this article)Population Growth - should outpace US average (used this site)Jobs Growth - highger the better (used Forbes data: example)Law Favorability - should be landlord-friendly (used Avail: example)State Tax Favorability - should be favorable (used this article)Poverty Level - should be low (used city-data.com)Crime - should be below US average of 290 (used city-data.com)Industries Present - should be diverse (used city-data.com) Here are the markets I evaluated: Bend, ORGreenville, SCCharlotte, NCMeridian, IDMidland, TXSpartanburg, SCHuntsville, ALKent, WAWithout any further delay, here is my market analysis laid out with selection criteria and markets: As you can see, the Top 2 Markets are: Meridian, IDCharlotte, NCand they are mostly green across the board, hitting all selection criteria, at a reasonable purchase price for my first investment at a young age.Now that I've completed a brief analysis, I'm looking to dive into deal finding and developing my Core 4.What are your thoughts on my preliminary market analysis?