Once you’ve decided to make your first real estate investment move and you’re ready to jump in feet first, you might still be wondering, “Where are the best places to invest in real estate?”

For the right start to your journey, I think you need a game plan. It boils down to 4 steps and we’ve laid it out like a blueprint for building your investment property portfolio. Check out our blueprint for locating the best deals and you can easily work out how to determine where to look for the best places to invest in real estate.

Here’s a quick look at our blueprint for finding the best places to invest in real estate for you:

• Refer to your goals (if you haven’t defined your goals yet, start here)
• Select a location using our smart criteria (check out 10 Tips to Select a Location)
• Get educated on where to look to find the deals
• Choose two or more search tactics and go find your deals!

Where are foreclosures now and where do they fit among the best places to invest in real estate? The foreclosure opportunity is still alive today. My recommendation is to search in judicial states to find foreclosure deals. What’s a judicial state, you ask? It basically goes like this: The foreclosure process varies by state, and some states use their court system to process a foreclosure. A judicial foreclosure process requires court action on a foreclosed home and, as a result, can take a very long time. This gives buyers and investors a better opportunity to find a deal, but I also recommend you find a buyer’s agent to help you locate and negotiate on the purchase of a foreclosed home. You can learn about the judicial states where foreclosures are pending on our list. These judicial states that use the court system to manage foreclosures are definitely among the best places to invest in real estate.

Whether or not a foreclosure property turns out to be one of the best places for you to invest in real estate always comes down to whether or not it fits within your individual investment strategy. It’s not one size fits all! So either way, you want to make sure you get educated on where to look and the criteria to search by. And make sure you use consistent criteria to select the right market for your goals. You’ll find it helpful to consider such factors as:

1. Redevelopment and big infrastructure spending
2. Neighborhoods with favorable rent-to-purchase price ratios
3. Stable employment opportunities
4. Nearby and abundant lifestyle attractions

And there are 6 more tips, and recommendations, in our article, 10 Tips to Select a Location

Once you’ve narrowed your search to a place that best meets your real estate investment goals, you’ll find properties in several places. Your research options will include one or more of these resources:

• Internet listing resources like MLS
• Auctions
• REOs
• Public records of pending defaults or foreclosures
• Turnkey real estate companies which offer properties like the ones you’ll find on HowManyDoors

Having a game plan and a structure for your research can make all the difference in the world. Take advantage of these and other resources HowManyDoors offers, like the Blueprint to Locating the Best Deals, and you’ll have a much easier time determining where are the best places to invest in real estate.