Lender for out of state apartment investing?

[Gustavo Gonzalez]

Hi everyone!  

So I currently hold a small mixed portfolio of SFR, duplexes, triplex and fourplex in Bakersfield, California but I would like to scale up to apartments. For my first apartment building I'm looking into 20-40 units.

So in listening to a real estate book by Joe Fairless, he recommends establishing a relationship with a lender first and specifically that this lender specialize in the type of apartment investing that I'm looking into.  

I live in California and I plan to invest out of state but I haven't fully decided where.  I've considered Texas, Arizona and Kentucky but seriously I have no idea just yet.  With that said, my question is should I use a California based lender or should I focus on finding lenders in the areas of potential investing?

Any and all feedback regarding getting started with apartment investing is much appreciated. 

Thanks, 

Gus