Take advantage of every service as well as play golf.

Location plays a major role in decision making.

i'm playing around with the numbers at the moment for how much i should be putting down for a down payment

Hey mate,Thick skin is needed on this forum and in business in general 🤷‍♂️I just posted something similar on another thread and the best advice I can give is spending enough time finding the right people on the ground before looking at the prospect of a market or a deal.Especially when doing BRRR out of state which is a very tough gig IMO.You can find the best market, with the best growth potential, find the best deal with the best cashflow but if your realtor isn't genuine, your property manager is incompetent and your contractor is a cheat.You will loose money.Also, underestimate your income and overestimate your expenses on every deal and business opportunity.If you think it won't happen to you, I can tell you right now that it unfortunately will...I've completed hundreds of flips and rarely come in at budget from a rehab standpoint.So keep that in mind.Appraisers are a joke and easily manipulated.They follow weird data and many want to cap you intentionally (No idea why...) on the ARV.They play it safe and can see how much you paid and what you spent on rehab so they will cap the value and come in under fair value on many appraisals.I stopped dealing with selling to investors looking to finance many moons ago as it wasn't efficient from a business perspective and I'm not in the business of using "in-house" lenders and manipulating appraisals like many others do. 

Most likely one dominates while the other plays 2nd fiddle.

Just recognize that you will have lower payments but that money will be illiquid so your personal financials also come into play

short for me as well and sometimes in the middle.. bigger land plays do take time..

You can play games by pretending that you wanted this new place to be an investment (or "being creative" as you put it), but this would be lying and can blow up in your face.

Turns out the kids were major gamers And waned black out blinds to play the computer games!

Again your personal strengths and desires will play a huge role.