Hi all! Currently in Southern California (so priced out of the market) and looking to start my REI journey out of state. I've been spinning my wheels for a few months now trying to find the right market and strategy. In an ideal world, I'd like to invest in small multi-family homes with some reasonable value-add opportunity. I'd like to at least break even on the cash flow side, but be in a place where, over time, there will be reasonable rent and property value growth. I don't have the ability to house hack and have no prior experience in the RE industry or construction, though I am a corporate/real estate lawyer, so that might help in some way. A few questions I'd love to pose to this group:

1. Would I be likely to meet out-of-state investors at local SoCal meetups? 

2. For out-of-state investors, how did you land on your market? Did you have previous experience there or connections to start building a team?

3. Without house hacking, what's the best way to scale efficiently? 

4. I've been having a hard time finding reliable rent info online. How do you find going rental rates for properties based on size/layout, etc.? Is there a paid service with that info or do you just use average/median figures from Zillow, etc.?

Thanks all!

-Ben