Hello Rochester! New to REI

[Ryan Bilak]

Hey everyone, I'm new to real estate investing and live in Rochester, NY. I'm looking to buy my first property, likely a SFH, within the next year and am trying to decide whether or not it makes sense to invest locally or look out of state.

I suppose that I'm just not that great at finding deals yet but is anyone have luck here w/ the 1% rule? I've been doing a lot of research on SFRs, looking at the monthly rent prices and looking at the most recent sale price on Zillow/Realtor.com, and am more often than not finding that homes are renting for less than 1% of the purchase price. 

I'd love to hear some stories from investors locally who have had some success investing in class B neighborhoods. 

Thanks!

-Ryan