New to USA, in which state should I invest in rental property?

[Giovanna Jeanina Joubert]

Hi BP community!

I am new to BP and investing and The United States and my biggest question right now is what location/state to focus my research on.

At the moment I live in White Salmon Washington, and I want to buy my first property (duplex) before the end of next year, not too far out of reach so that I can manage it myself.  (what is far? 2 hours of driving?) 

But there will be a lot of traveling in 2 or more years. The plan is to outsource property managing before that time and then, buy my second property more on the southern half of the united states (Hawaii and Puerto Rico not excluded).

If there is anybody out there with experience or tips and advice on where to research or invest around the Gorge area/Portland/Oregon/Washington I would love to hear from you. 

Or if there is anybody out there, with any advice on which state with the following requirement, has good potential for finding a successful second and third duplex property, I would also love to hear from you.  
Requirements
A state with:

- A big well known thriving metropolitan city 
- All year round pleasant to hot climate 
- Rental property owner friendly laws
- Rental property owner tax benefits or other financial benefits rules and laws

I am looking and searching actively myself as well, so if there are any tips out there to speed up the process with for example good recourses, feel free to message me or reply on this topic.

Thank you so much in advance!

Gio

[Monique Burns]

@Giovanna Jeanina Joubert. Why isn't your criteria Best Return on Investment? Or the city where the cost of houses are 40% lower than national average but rent for 20-30% higher? Or where you could buy a single family home for only $49,500, pay $1,200/year in taxes, $600/year for insurance, pay 10% of rent in property management and it rents for $825/mo? Why do you need to visit more than once to meet the property manager and see the area if your property manager does such a nice job that you just enjoy at 12-14% ROI easily deposited in your bank each month? Or how about a city with no natural disasters that borders a peaceful foreign country right on the St Lawrence Seaway? Or a city on the rise whose tech presence is growing — Amazon, Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Pinterest? My own investments are in Detroit. They've been performing well for years.