While it's important to get the first one under your belt, if you have negative cash flow or don't set aside enough for a big repair it could turn into a bad experience. 

More importantly from listening to all the BP podcasts, I wanted to get the first property "under my belt" to start building that momentum.

Best bet is loopnet or har until you’ve got a few deals under your belt.

Going the hard money lender route and get some experience and success under my belt before going with private lending. 

@Eric Crockett wow, that’s quite a story, thank you for sharing all that.I definitely think that if your price point is 250K you’d be looking more south toward RI than north toward Boston.I would be reluctant to recommend short term flips in this phase of the market if you’re still just starting out (even with your one success under your belt - congratulations btw :).If it were me in your position I’d continue with rental real estate, maybe with a slight value add component (i.e., needs a little work but not a ton).It wasn’t clear if you were asking if you should buy all cash or not, but with rates at new historic lows I’d use mortgage leverage for sure, though again taking the market phase into account, maybe not aggressively (e.g., 97% LTV) unless you’re overall financial picture can support it.I’d definitely say do traditional bank financing with low fixed rates if you can (again, this points to more long term holds than flips), instead of hard or high-rate private money.And as far as partners, the old saying is that a partnership is like a marriage - a lot easier to get into than get out of.

Maybe I’m not as hardcore as I thought(have facial hair) but I tend to not wear a tool belt as much anymore and hold my breath a lot and pull my shirt over my face when making small cuts of concrete stuff.

@Brian Eastman @Dmitriy Fomichenko @George Blower   

Check my profile I have experience have some great deals under my belt. 

My background is in interior design and renovations (6years) with a little of hands on construction under my belt but not that much.

Once I have a few under my belt, I will be more cash equipped of course!