Hi everyone, 

I'm a newbie investor just taking my first steps toward making this my new business. I've been a web applications developer for the last 12 years, and I'm really excited to mix my tech skills and entrepreneurial drive with some purposeful investing.

I have some experience as that typical "accidental landord" and have held my first home as a rental for the last 10 years. Its had its ups and downs, but I've come to really love the idea of the "passive" income it generates. I've just sold my 2nd home, and my wife & I are beginning a new chapter in our lives in Charlotte, NC this summer. 

I decided on Charlotte after conducting a ton of research on the top markets in the US, and taking a variety of factors into consideration:

• Home Values
• Average Rent / Income ratios
• Unemployment Rates
• Crime
• Population
• Economic Growth
• Net Migration
• and most importantly, where we'll be happy

I started out with Bigger Pockets own excellent 2017 Market Analysis, and added my own numbers to help me give more weight to the factors I felt were most important. Here it is:  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nveTPhkgMf...  

Disclaimer: I'm not a data scientist and these calculations are only representative of my own opinions, take them with a fair amount of salt. 

The most valuable takeaway for others though are probably the data sources that I found while putting this together :

• American Fact Finder - This was a great resource, you mix & match different demographic, economic and geographic data tables
• City Data - Pretty well known, contains a variety of information on different cities, used for crime statistics
• HUD Fair Market Rents
• Unemployment Statistics
  
• Census Bureau Quick Facts
• Additional Census Bureau Resources

It took me a while to figure out where I could find good, reliable data, so hopefully this list helps someone else who's unsure of where to look. I have a lot to learn still, but Bigger Pockets has already been an indispensable wealth of information. I hope to add just a little more. I'm curious, what are some resources and things you've found helpful for analyzing data and guiding your decisions?

I'm really looking forward to learning and growing with the help of the Bigger Pockets community, and sharing the things I learn along the way. I hope to connect with some of you, and I'm especially interested in learning who some of the prominent investors, property managers and agents are in Charlotte. If that's you, or you have some recommendations, please say hello! 

I'll be in Charlotte for the majority of next month, and would love to start building some relationships when I'm there.