Hi @Yael DoronWay to start 2025 with a bang! 

These guru's pitch get rick quick with no money down, so people "want to be investors" but fail to start because they had unrealistic expectations from day 1.  

Lee Arnold has helped a lot of people start or scale their real estate business.

I would recommend starting in your backyard and hone your skills if its possible, I know some markets have an extreme HCOL which may make it unfavorable in your case.

My only concern to look out for is that things can go 'rural' pretty quickly if you start venturing outside of town, and most lenders are going to put the brakes on financing if the appraisal lists the property as 'rural' (has to do with what they perceive as the availability of future tenants).Watertown, NY - It probably is as good as you believe, but the lending licensing is pretty tricky up there, so its just  bit more difficult to find lenders that operate up there.

We are starting the process of analyzing deals, making a plan and executing on it. 

I'm starting out at level 0.

I am now set to start another program in Lee’s system in the morning.

Have your agent start to look for properties that will do the 1031 now.See my comments in recent post. 

Start by reading the Ultimate Real Estate Investing Guide: https://www.biggerpockets.com/guides/ultimate-real-estate-investing-guide/introduction2.