While these deals were successful, I realized that the cost of using hard money significantly ate into my profits.

Thus it's often more profitable to find long-term tenant than squeezing out every rental dollar you can. - RentReady repairs & vacancies between tenants can blow any projected ROIs.2) Warren Buffet - go where others aren't.

Is the time spent learning real estate and finding deals more profitable elsewhere?

But to be successful and profitable, takes some distinct characteristics:1.

I do not want to sell because my profits after closing costs will be about $15K.

While they cash flow, we've realized we're over-leveraged and want to take a different approach.Our plan is to purchase our first investment property in Indiana, possibly paying cash, with the goal of generating reliable income.

And the obvious, again well documented, FOR PROFIT.... 

It's not just the taxes, but being able to at-a-glance look at expenses by the month and year, profit and loss calculating automatically, and even cash flow by property and total portfolio by month and year.Thanks for suggesting it!

that will not cash flow - you won't be generating "cash flow" from the property that will go beyond servicing the debt and allow you to pay down any principal. 

I had no money to put down on any properties, so I learned (a lot) and put in a lot of hard work and effort to get some properties under contract.Initially, I had no clue what I was doing, but I had the help of some people (and I appreciated that)I made mistakes that cost me around $30k (lost a deal due to my ignorance regarding title and escrow)The good news with wholesaling is that it doesn't take a lot of capital upfront, and you can start talking to sellers and learn about the industry in general.The other good news is that you can without a doubt generate revenue quickly if you do things correctly (having a good TC / title / escrow connection that keeps deals moving on the backend)That said, there are a few points that I've come to live by:1.