The golden days of anything we're apparently always sometime prior to the present.Realistically, investing will become wayyyy harder in the future, & it will have nothing to do with prices and everything to do with ramped up competition.

You'd have to be able to convince tenants that the higher rent you're charging (compared to the local competition) is worth it because the tenants will save money on their electricity bill each month.

If you're doing your first mailing, your best bet is *not* to buy a list unless you are *not* in a competitive area, got cash to burn, and just wanna get started as quickly as possible.

I know people look on AirBnB at competitors around the place, and see what prices they are putting so that you can be competitive. 

There's a ton of competition here right now.

I work in a very competitive market in the Chicago west suburbs near Oak Park, and I was able to close 9 transactions in my first year and 17 transactions in my second.

You have to be very competitive to convince someone to live there, instead of, say, Lancaster.  

BiggerPockets happens to have a lot of Landlords, and a couple of us have painstakingly gone over them, state by state, to produce a product that we believe gives investors a starting point that is better than what the competition provides.

Prices are also high compared to surrounding areas, and investors from the Seattle area create a lot of buyer competition. 

The 5 year rate is the most competitive and many investors will do a 1031exchange at the 5 year mark.