Rookie investors - should we be on the sidelines for the moment?

[Jake Drappi]

Hello BP community, 

I am new to REI, and have been reading and listening consistently for the past 7 months (spent our quarantine time well). I am in an expensive market, which is also blazing hot it seems at the moment. Every house has multiple offers, some cash, some site unseen, some have all three. It also seems that houses are selling for ridiculous prices (I haven't seen many places selling under 400K that I would consider). My question to the community is it not a good time to get into REI without experience? I know that is a very vague question, but I would like to see what kind of different points of view I can drum up here. I have the capital to buy my first one and house hack, which makes me feel much more secure for my first one, but is the market to hot / unpredictable to take my first leap?

Any and all opinions are welcomed!