Sacramento, CA vs. Little Rock, AR

[Jean Marx]

My husband and I are trying to determine the most viable market for us to get more involved in REI. We are primarily looking into two metro areas: Sacramento, CA and Little Rock, AR. Here is the summary from our prospective. We're hoping you can help us out with additional insight.

Sacramento Pros: We live here, can network easily/do some of the due diligence in person, have a better change of the properties appreciating 

Sacramento Cons: We don't know as many people in the industry, the contractor we like is booked 3+months out for larger projects which doesn't seem uncommon for the area, we have demanding/long hour day jobs that would limit the amount of sweat equity equity we can put in, higher barrier to entry/ability to scale with our capital (due to contractor timeline, competition, price point etc.)

Little Rock Pros: We used to live here and have a number of contacts in the area including a realtor that we trust, the price point is low enough that we could scale quicker by not having so more tied up in a single property, favorable landlord laws

Little Rock Cons: Appreciation is almost non-existent at least in the neighborhood we used to live in (which is tied to top schools), we aren't close enough to do any of the leg work/would have to rely on others/wouldn't be experiencing the trends the same way as living in the area, a chunk of the networking would have to be done from afar vs. in person

Thanks in advance!

[Jeff Filali]

Its simple really... 

If you want to invest for appreciation, invest in Sacramento...  If you want to invest for cash-flow, invest in Little Rock or other Midwest communities.  The best cash-flow deals are in the Midwest in B/C and blue collar neighborhoods, not necessarily in the AA or A neighborhoods with the best schools.  I live in an AA neighborhood, but I hold zero other properties here.  All my cash-flow properties are in B/C & blue collar neighborhoods or communities.