I'm just starting out with real estate investing.  I live in San Diego and I'm looking to invest out-of-state in a nice cash-flow market.  My focus now is finding the right team and location.  Are there any other folks here living in San Diego willing to share their experiences with out of state investing?  Or any local groups I could join to find fellow investors?

@Christine Lawrence hi there and welcome! Would be happy to help. Feel free to reach out, send a pm.

Originally posted by @Christine Lawrence :

I'm just starting out with real estate investing.  I live in San Diego and I'm looking to invest out-of-state in a nice cash-flow market.  My focus now is finding the right team and location.  Are there any other folks here living in San Diego willing to share their experiences with out of state investing?  Or any local groups I could join to find fellow investors?

I'm told that Phoenix is a short hop from San Diego and we enjoy great cash flow here. You can join AZREIA.org (the local REIA group) for $20 a month and make all sorts of contacts. I am not employed by AZREIA but I am a big fan. There are investors here from San Diego, Los Angeles, the Bay Area and other parts of California. We even reciprocate by visiting the fine beaches of Newport and Carlsbad CA.

As for cash flow - it goes something like this:

Average Turnkey Cash Flow Per Door In Phoenix Metro Area No Bank Financing Needed

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/600/topics/584916-average-cash-flow-per-door-in-phoenix-metro-area

@Christine Lawrence Ping me!  I used to own rentals in Memphis and Indianapolis (now fully divested).  I am not a crazy who will say one way or another that investing OOS is a terrible or a fantastic idea.

There are definitely pitfalls of which you need to be mindful since there are a lot of bad actors in this space, but many people find decent returns in this space.

Originally posted by @Christine Lawrence :

I'm just starting out with real estate investing.  I live in San Diego and I'm looking to invest out-of-state in a nice cash-flow market.  My focus now is finding the right team and location.  Are there any other folks here living in San Diego willing to share their experiences with out of state investing?  Or any local groups I could join to find fellow investors?

 Welcome to the site Christine. Tons of investors around here in the same position as you. In fact the whole turnkey industry has been built to serve you guys. Tons of turnkey markets out there. Many are well represented by sellers & turnkey operators here on BiggerPockets. The most popular markets are

• Cleveland
• Toledo
• Memphis
• Birmingham
• KC
• Indy
• Detroit

Each of these markets is popular with turnkey investors because of the low barrier to entry, high rental demand & high rent to price ratio. I recommend setting up keyword alerts for each area as they are discussed in the forums daily with advertisements posted in the BiggerPockets marketplace hourly.

One thing to note when looking at the individual markets, you can make or loose money in any market. Don't think that one particular out of state market will shoot you to success or abject failure. It's not really that complicated to buy out of state. It only becomes complicated when investors try to over complicate or over think everything. Whenever you are buying a property out of state you should do a few things to ensure it's as smooth as possible.

• Don't buy in the roughest neighborhood in the urban core. Pick a solid B-Class suburban area. Perhaps a nice 1950's built bungalow.
• Always hire a 3rd party property inspector to give you an unbiased feel for the home. The reports are 40-90 pages long and go through the entire house in great detail.
• Get an appraisal. If your using financing the bank requires this. This is good. The bank isn't going to let you blow their money. They have more skin in the game then you do.
• Make sure you get clear title. If using a lender this is a non issue. They will make you do this. It's those maniacs that buy homes cash via quit claim deed off of craigslist that really get screwed.
• Make sure your property manager is a licensed real estate brokerage.
• Understand you can not eliminate all risk, only mitigate it. If you are risk adverse real estate, (especially out of state) is not for you.

@Christine Lawrence - happy to help you out.  You should check out our market, Atlanta, GA.  While we are an appreciation market, there are individual deals that I see that are strong cash-flow deals.  Even submarkets in GA like Macon and Savannah can be strong cash-flow markets.  The south suburbs of metro Atlanta are great as well.

@Simmy Ahluwalia I have read that Savannah is a poor area for REI, but I am moving there and would love to explore that adventure. What has your expierence/wisdom been there?

@Sarah Vance - did anyone back that up with statistics?  There are always "pockets" of every town that are gentrifying and/or transitional.  You just have to be able to find those individual deals, which I can:)  

@Simmy Ahluwalia that is how I felt about it too.

@Christine Lawrence hi Christine,

I have several apartment (48 units, all the way down to 2 unit apartments) available in Texas.

Are you looking to invest in Texas?

@Sarah Vance One of my buddys is sellee over 20 properties in Savannah, would you like to learn more? Share your email if you would.

@Christine Lawrence Hi Christine, I am interested in this as well and have had a hard time finding a local group to help support my fire. I am going to be creating a gathering in North County towards the end of the month to try and draw people together. I cannot promise you will meet anyone that can help you in your endeavor to grow but I will do my part in trying to create a space to get us all together.

I would love to see you there. I’ll keep you posted on the exact date.

@Christine Lawrence

Hi Christine! I'm an OOS investor living in San Diego. I have purchased one SFR in Indianapolis and on the search for the next one. I would be happy to share my experience with you. PM if you want to connect.

@Christine Lawrence

I live in SD as well and I have one investment property in Pensacola, one in Milwaukee, and I’m closing on a second in Milwaukee this week! Super pumped.

@Christine Lawrence there are normally bigger pocket specific meet ups in each city.  Check to see if SD has one.

Hi Christine, would love to have a chat with you.  

First post here, but long time investor.  I live in San Diego, CA and would be interested in other locations to invest in.  I'm currently buying in Michigan but open to expand to other locations.  We don't have an out of state investing meet up group as far as I know and I've looked, but it would be great to start one. 

@Christine Lawrence - message me and I can help you out in any way that I can.  

@Alex Flores I miss San Diego! I rented a place off of Santa Clara Pl.... the landlord was super nice but he was making a killing off of me and my roommates. Are you doing any AirBnB out there?

@Scott Matthew C. - Hey Scott, I'm not doing any AirBnB here in San Diego, but I know a few that are.  Median price here is $650,000 which is outrageous so that's why I'm out of state in Michigan.  Michigan has been great for cash flow! 

@Rowena Agustin I am planning on investing in Indianapolis and Alabam markets. I would like to connect with you and ask few questions regarding your experience with Indy market.  

@Billy Woodson Please let me know if you have any meetups going on in North County area currently. Thank you. 

@Christine Lawrence , Thanks for starting this post. It is very helpful for people like me staying in San Diego. 

@Veera Vala Send me a PM with your contact info and we can set up a time to talk. I'm definitely no expert but I can share my experience with you.

@Christine Lawrence   Out of state investing has some unique challenges but for the most part, most of the challenges are the same as investing locally. Unless you are trying to renovate a property remotely, the biggest unique challenge is knowing the neighborhoods and not buying in the wrong area, That is the single biggest mistake out of state investors make, Any other mistake can be overcome. You can always evict a bad tenant or fix fix something that is broken. You can't move a house from a bad area to a good one. The risk of that can be overcome with good due diligence and working with someone on the ground that you can trust. Feel free to reach out if you want some advice on how to evaluate a neighborhood.