Ready to buy - But wait

[Ricky Jefferson]

Hello all, I'm new to Bigger Pockets and I'm super pumped about getting more aggressive in the Real Estate investing world. I listen to three podcast a day lol… I live in California and grew up in Mississippi. I bought several SFH's in Mississippi back in 2005 but I lost most of those homes after the crash. However I had one home that I new was a great investment and I managed to hold on to the house after three mods. I still own the home and it's the rent is bringing me a nice return. My mortgage is 399 and my rent is 650 per month... I've been waiting to get back into investing because my goal was to build a full service real estate investing company that I can run with my kids. I'm now 50 years old but I'm ready to start looking at investing again. I'm ready to start now but every house I see on the MLS sells quickly. I'm waiting to fly out to Mississippi before making an offer on anything but I'm wondering if I should just do it. I found a great agent who does FaceTime with me and has become my eyes and ears. I'm getting a big commission check in August so I'm afraid if I see something I want have the money in time to put as a down payment. I'm just feeling anxious about the whole thing perhaps I should just be patient. Any thoughts.

[Andrew Johnson]

@Ricky Jefferson Personal opinion, wait until you have the check in your bank account.  And account for those pesky taxes that you'll owe at the end of the year.  Get prequalified (either here or through conversations with a bank in Mississippi) post-commission check so that you can make sure that any offer come with that prequal letter.  And there's nothing wrong with starting to track those properties that are 100+ days on the market now.  Odds are they are mispriced and there might be a stubborn owner.  If it's still around at the end of August then it's REALLY gone stale and you can vet those properties for a "stale-adjusted" offer at the same time as vetting the new properties when you fly back.