Which city do you recommend for investing (list of 8 cities)

[Kellan Martz]

Hi BP. I've been researching cities to do my first investment property and have narrowed down my list:

Top picks: Indianapolis, Kansas City, Cleveland, St. Louis.

Second choices: Memphis, Nashville, Cincinnati

Wild card: Des Moines, Philadelphia 

Investment plan: Single family home (or small duplex) for a buy and hold. Will be working with two partners on this first purchase and our goal is to buy 1-2 in the first year and scale up from there. We would prefer to invest in one city over the long term, but aren't opposed to branching out to a second or third city as we grow.

First purchase: Our purchase price target is 50k to 75k, traditional mortgage or hard money lender with 20% down. 2-3 bedroom property with 1-2 bathrooms, 750-1100 sq. ft. is most likely what we will get at that price. 

Question: If you invest in or know the cities in my lists, which is best and which would you avoid? What might we not know about these cities being that we are from LA? (Yes, snow and rough weather is expected).

(We have worked through the logistics of investing together, etc. so the focus of this post is locations). Thanks!

[Jay Hinrichs]

50k rental houses you may want to rethink that.. those are generally for an out of state investor can be a real crap shoot vis of vi the cost to maintain and the tenant turn over etc.
basically in today's market a 50k house that is rent ready  in a Major metro area is going to be in an area of low to lower income and come with all the things that suggests. If you live there and can self manage and really want to get hands on I get that.. but from LA  not sure.

Also check Vegas even though price points are higher.. Tax's are quite low and desert environment is fairly friendly on the houses .. just get a stucco house with a tile roof.. landscaping can just be desert rock .. very low maintenance.  Run the numbers.  you maybe find that its an option.. plus you can drive there..   Just a thought.