Understand real estate cycles and their impact on investors

[Jacob Decter]

Hello All, This is my first post! First off, I'm very excited to be joining the biggerpockets community. I've been on the boards for only a week scouring various threads and have learned an immense amount. Thanks to all of you that are actively building this community. On to my question. As I think about breaking into the world of real estate investing, I'm deeply concerned about developing an intelligent way of thinking about the RE market cycles as it relates to investments. Specifically: 1. How conscious are you of where we are in a given markets cycle when purchasing a good deal? 2. Do you think about cycles on a county level, then by MSA, then by state and finally nationally? 3. Does cycle position directly drive your investment decisions? 4. How do you determine where we are in a cycle? What are good resources you use? 5. Do you often try to "time the market"? Thanks! Jake