Last year i had a I-beam tip over and break my leg Instantly!

But I hear what everyone is saying- it makes more sense to do the work for the next reno for free and it becomes instant equity.

We live in an instant-gratification culture and the truth is that to make a good living in real estate you just need to be consistent with strategic, proven actions.

You often get poor information about their prospective incomes, and by the time real information comes out, the stock price has already adjusted near instantly. 

To be sure, equity sitting in a house is dead equity - it's not making any money - but not all of your money always needs to be making money, because making money always entails risk, and a certain portion of your total net worth should always be easily accessible, easy liquidity, and instantly valued - ie, $10k in your checking account is worth $10k today. 

During that year, save, study the market, network with local investors, learn from them what they are doing to make profit and avoiding, narrow in on a sub-market you'd like to start investing in, and learn that sub-market like the back of your hand so that you know instantly looking at a property in that market what sort of neighborhood it is in, whether or not it is a deal, and what price would make it a great deal  ... that way, you can answer your own question and gain some knowledge and local experience.

If you want to compare the insurance cost, Geico have a instant quote for house insurance.

At a later date combine the two (or three)Building a portfolio is not an instant process.  

It sold instantly at the price you put it up for, which means you probably could have sold it for a little more.

Depending on your market, you can optionally list that property as "occupied, instant cash flow, investors only, please do not disturb the tenant."