What advice do you have for a newbie other than “be patient”?

[Tony Cimino]

My wife and I are in the process of acquiring our first single family rental. We selected an agent that has his own rentals so he understands our mind set. He also understands the rental and sales markets, and is even giving us his rental agreement that his company attorney wrote up. We have our spreadsheets, costs estimators, and my dad is a contractor, so if something needs fixed/flipped, we can get a good estimate on costs. The margins in our market are right about 1%, which are good however; we have placed 6 offers, 4 being asking price, and (close to) full closing, we have yet to get a property under contract. I do not “NEED” to get a great deal as I am looking to slowly build portfolio and hold the properties, but I am not going to overpay on a house. My agent knows this and based on this, has helped us formulate pretty competitive offers, we think. He has actually talked me out of a few houses, which I think was a great choice looking back. We are 20-25% down, conventional, closing anywhere between 21-30 days. Around the holidays, we are writing 30, but out lender has given us a green light of 21 days. Any advice or tips to find a property, other than “be patient”? FYI, with our price point ($120k-135k) it doesn’t really make sense to go with a hard money lender at 12-15%.