To start off the market I live in (Hollis, OK) is dead and the town has always been declining but I do have the opportunity to invest in other towns close by but they are still small towns which don't really work for the brrrr method.

Should I start looking into long distance? I've definitely considered fort worth, Oklahoma city, and Lubbock since there's more opportunity and they are growing cities not declining. My biggest issue is trying to learn these cities without being in them. I plan to go to some rei events to hopefully network and find people that are like minded.

In the meantime my plan is to buy properties locally and attempt to flip them to fund the purchases in these bigger cities. Does this seem to be a good idea or is it better to just stay in these smaller towns that I know? I just feel it's going to be hard to grow fast in these smaller towns.