Question on investment within CA

[Anantha Lakshmi]

I am a newbie and trying to go through the articles and do my research here. If I want to analyze properties within northern CA, is there a recommended list of cities / zip codes to look at as the first investment? I doubt if I will go anywhere beyond 200K to learn this process and get my feet in investing.

Also, I do see properties for less than 60K in NC and few other states - has anyone invested there living out of state? If yes, how do you figure out which is a good neighborhood, do you engage with an agent there?

Any pointers will be of great help