Where's the money? (Rant + Confusion)

[Tyler Piciullo]

Hi guys. I am a successful Realtor for the past 8 years and decided that it's time to hop into the investing space for my first investments. After learning the basics and analyzing properties (mostly single family) here in South Florida...here is the conclusion I have come to..

1. Everyone and their mom who owns a piece of Real Estate is saying (go find a property than you can fix up and rent out etc..)

- Well, with almost 8% interest rates, there isn't any solid cash flow in doing that (I am seeing negative or 5% or less COC)...also that deal that you want to buy already has 3 investors looking at it (Off market) all willing to overpay for it.

2. Go put 3.5% down and house hack. 

-Well...the duplex in the safe area goes for 600K+ and needs another 80K worth of work and at 3.5% it's literally much much cheaper to rent do to the insane insurance costs of Florida, high property taxes, and high interest rate etc...

3. Go find a deal that makes sense...

-Well the deal you think you found under 400K more than likely needs a 100K+ renovation...if not then the house is in a dangerous area. Also, everyone seems to be ignoring numbers and just overpaying for Real Estate. P.S. I just lost out on a deal with an investor overpaying 50K which made 0 sense.  (Off Market)

ALL IN ALL. Here's my dilemma.

1. Am I finding these crazy issues with Real Estate Investing right now because I am in South Florida?

2. Should I be looking in other markets and these issues will not be nearly as bad?

3. Is now just a bad time to buy Real Estate?

Sorry for 'ranting' but I am more here to voice my concern and to hopefully hear from a few veterans who know better than I do and have been through tough times...

P.S. I have capital. I am just having trouble deploying it.