Gaining Great Experience or Great Returns on First Property

[Austin Petrie]

Hey all,

I hear a lot of people say to not get stuck in analysis paralysis and that the greatest value you get from your first deal is the experience, not necessarily the financial returns. What is your opinion on that and what lower amount of return do you think would be an acceptable amount as a tradeoff for this gained experience?

The reason I'm asking this is because I know most markets are heavily saturated at this point and properties are expensive, but I don't want to wait potentially years before getting my first property just because prices will eventually go down. I'd much rather get something with marginal returns right now so that when prices do go down, I have the experience to purchase many great deals. So to reiterate my question, what are the "marginal returns" that I should be ok with when taking into account how valuable this experience will be?