Question about neighborhoods

[Bonnie Cerruti]

I am in California and my goals are to purchase out of state rentals. One of my issues is I am not sure what the neighborhoods are like at the properties I find on-line.  Does anyone have an idea how I would find out if the neighborhood is good or not?  And help or suggestions would be appreciated. thanks

[JD Martin]

Quote from @Bonnie Cerruti:

I literally just joined yesterday so I don't even know what a buy box is.  LOL. I need to figure out where my training begins on here,

 It can be a stairway to disaster to invest out of state as a new investor if you're not very familiar with real estate. All RE is local and neighborhoods can command different rents and prices just blocks from each other within the same cities. *Most* of the time it is better to start off investing someplace you know intimately than picking cities out of a hat based on statistics you read on a screen. 

If you've always lived in the US, think about the places you have lived. I guarantee there are rental properties in those cities or towns. Start with what you know. You can always find someone willing to sell you "great investment properties" in Columbus or Detroit or Kansas City or Cincinnati or a thousand other places, which you will have no idea on how good that investment is because you don't know the situation on the ground.