I am walking the neighborhoods today searching for that diamond in the rough of investment properties near downtown Long Beach and south of 10th street on the West side.  

I started skiing my senior year of high school and was on the double black diamond by the end of the first day.

Is it better for me to start off on a beginner trail, or should I tie myself at the hip to another beginner and huck both of us off a double black diamond?"

Any agents here that have followed Ricky Carruth's Zero to Diamond agent program?

It's really a diamond in the rough strategy that favors smaller investors.To give you an idea of what this has meant for me, each property I've purchased for B&H (or tried to purchase) in the past 3 years has been unique and required extreme work to meet the above requirement.  

A great book on this topic is “BOLD”, by Peter Diamonds.

Search online for the following real estate networking groups: Black Diamond- Waltham, Metro West Real Estate Professionals - Framingham, Boston Real Connection, The Boston Investor networking event.

Multiple exit options help turn coal into diamonds. 

As previous posters mentioned, getting a diamond in the rough property in a nicer area and doing a value add may be your best bet.

Seth, I suppose if a GC helps walk a quality sub through the process that GC may find a diamond in the rough.