Bay Area Newbie ready to combat "analysis paralysis" Help needed!

[Nate Baum]

Hello BP community!

I was unable to find a good 1-800 number for analysis paralysis, so I figured this would be a great place to start. Thank you for building such an amazing place with a treasure trove of information, podcasts, fascinating books by David Greene, Brandon Turner, Anson Young and data... data.... data.... o man, there we go again.

My wife and I are new to the world of real estate investing. For the last 7 months, we have been getting ready to get off the sidelines and invest for our future. We moved to Mountain View, CA from Charlotte, NC about a year ago, I am a financial analyst and she is an analyst in the field supply chain management. We were both unemployed before the move, living off of savings and are truly blessed to have amazing jobs in the Bay Area while saving close to 70% of our income. 

Our goal is to invest out of state in one or two Duplex/Tri/Quad "Mom and Pop" houses, get a solid cash flow of around 10-15% and get rich slowly. We built crazy models with censuses, Zillow, labor statistics, crime rate data and have little to show for it other than wasted time. We did Identify Cincinnati & Pittsburg as a possibility along with the usual suspects (Austin, Denver, Phoenix...) 

This out of state is a little nerve wrecking and I am wondering if there are others out there that had the same reservations/fears before they invested far far away from home.

How did you determine the best location to peruse?  

Is now a good time to get in or does it make more sense to wait?

What was the "Aha!" moment that pushed you over the edge to take that first step?

What do you wish you knew back then that would have helped things go more smoothly?

Is there an active community in the Bay Area with meet-ups?

Thanks,

Nate