Either way, you are taking the RIGHT steps, you have the desire; that’s obvious.  

With regard to renovations, I always suggest taking incremental steps to bigger renovations or partnering with someone who has already done a renovation at that level.I've been known to just go for the big rehabs for my personal investments here in Chicago , and during that process, it's always more stressful than it needs to be...As far as navigating the competition, I've found the best thing I can do is get EXTREMELY CLEAR  on what I am looking for; then I am confident pulling the trigger quicky. 

This step by step process is all laid out in Scott Trench's book "Set for Life".

I think the tool out-of-the-box is great, but there are certainly ways to take it step further and tailor it to your market. 

@James TobinJames, congratulations on deciding to take the first step into real estate investing!

This setup helps simplify the workflow while ensuring all necessary steps are covered efficiently.

If so you may benefit from a step up-in-basis.

I actually go 1 step farther though and do velocity banking and investing at the same time. 

I made an image showing the steps how to have AI drive for dollars for you in DealMachine.

If it’s not written down, when you get to the end of the year, you won’t be able to determine if your year exceeded expectations or not.Schedule a meeting with your CPA to discuss your goals and tax planning.After all of your budgeting and goal planning, there’s another very important step.