I had an entrepreneurial fire in my belly so I designed and outsourced the development of a little software application that serves a niche industry.  

And, the cyberspace is teaming up with all kinda information FREELY and READILY available, so why pay a fat cat to "teach" me yet down deep I know that if HE/SHE was successful he/she woulda never been teaching, he/she woulda been out in the field shoveling money left and right.

Meet actual honest people with references belly to belly at meetups.  

Try to build a relationship with your seller...belly button to belly button.

Certainly that makes as much sense as paying farmers to plow their tomatoes under or feeding fat kids pizza and french fries for lunch under the federal nutritional lunch program at school.Because they are scarce and in such high demand, the risk of owning and operating inexpensive rental houses is almost non­existent.

Plus there is more supply of condos and nicer condos.I like the idea of either putting a ton down on an investment or paying cash becuase everyone says "insert bad thing here" will never happen ... until it does and your standing there being forced to take less rent while you have a fat mortgage you are having to subsidize with a regular job which is negitive cash flow.I have 40k saved now which will go towards the primary residence and then another 120k worth of raw land I can sell (estate just sold some like lots so I am pretty confident I can get at least 120k). 

Kind of like the person with a fat 401K.

I would not overlook diving into your finances and trim the fat.

pulling that trigger allows you to open many doors that the average investor hasn't done yet. you will go to these meet ups and talk to people who have been "looking for a few years' and you ask nice how many properties have you done and its a big FAT 0 but they are looking at one now lol... so you dont think i just talk and not DO!

Anybody who's in a big fat rush to move is red flag, often because they're being thrown out of their current housing.