Newbie: Action or wait?

[Anthony Janke]

Hello BP Members,

Sorry in advance for the long post.

So, for some background: I have been diving headlong into the material of the site as well as books and other material to get started in REI.

I have settled on the strategy of house-hacking to start off my adventure with the incredible power it can have of reducing expenses to free up for more investments and focusing my research on this niche per Brandon’s principles.

My plan was to simply watch and wait. By allowing myself one year to research REI further and expand my knowledge of the local markets and locate a better deal. This however changed recently when my friend (landlord) recently got a new job and is having to relocate. This creates a bit of a conundrum to me as I really wasn't planning to buy something this early, essentially moving my one year of waiting into potentially 4-8 weeks.

So, the knowledge base I have so far comes in the form of around 30 BP podcasts, Brandon’s two books on rental property investing (read ~3 times), as well as the newly released investing guide by Josh and Brandon. I have also been looking at random youtube videos for additional content. This was all done within the span of about 3 months.

My current W2 job provides me with enough income that I should be able to scrape together enough money for an FHA down payment quickly, I have a FICO of 780+, I'm in a buyer's market from what I can tell [Topeka, KS]. I do have a bit of rehab experience, but it's been about 10 years since I've had any real hands-on.

So finally, to my question:

Armed with this little knowledge, should I:

A)Buy something quick after analyzing deals 24/7 over the next few weeks

B)Wait for now, learn more and keep renting (effectively pushing back REI due to a 12-month lease)

My biggest concern is the fact that if I push back the ACTION portion for a whole year, I may lose the enthusiasm and momentum that I’m so excited about. While on the reverse side of this being that I may be too willing to jump head-first and not finding a great deal due to the time-crunch.

Looking for some guidance and/or opinions.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my post!

-AJ