How to focus on 1 shiny object?

[Chad Ackerman]

I am a newbie to the REI world and have yet to purchase my first door, but now that the economy has sputtered with no idea when the bottom will hit I'm finding it even more difficult to focus on what to do in this business. I have potential partners wanting to purchase some flips which seems too risky for me at this point. I've been looking at buy and holds for the past several months but now it seems like there could be a drop in price that would be beneficial to wait for. But I hear people say you shouldn't try to guess the market. So I'm looking for advice from those that have been in the business for a while on whether it's still a good time to purchase or if a "wait and see" approach would be better at this point?

I have capital and my long term goals are to create wealth that will replace my income and allow me to do this full time.  I like the buy and hold strategy for the growth and to ultimately get to a passive income structure.  I feel there are going to be a lot of opportunities out there but it doesn't seem like we are there yet.  But I don't trust myself yet with making these decisions

Any help is appreciated.