I have been doing my research as to what state to buy in, but have not narrowed it down yet. 

Of course, with any office that has 100's of agents, you'll also be surrounded by many who just hanging out at the office and that isn't the best environment.This experience helped me narrow my focus to only income-producing activities and led me to join a team.Cloud experience: From KW I went to exp where there is little to no culture but an online group of 10,000's of agents and a half dozen brokers to answer my questions.

I have the funding narrowed down and location to start.

I find this discourse about cashflow OR appreciation an incredibly narrow way to look at the market.

Everyone knows that as the booking window narrows, guests go looking for places that have discounted their place to get a short notice booking. 

If the goal is to work with a well-priced quality lender, narrow your search to DSCR lenders that have solid reviews and a track record of closing.

Then, if you are able to narrow your search to a few specific areas in the Sacramento region, an analysis may be ran to compare past appreciation of those areas.

The information is about what happened in the past and once people read those, they start to flock to those markets, making it more competitive.I would create a list of wants in a market and then narrow down.

Then we can borrow against some of that equity which is another reason that narrower margins may still be worth it.

It wasn't until I narrowed my focus on ONLY ONE THING general contracting that things fell more into place...My advice is to educate as much as  possible and find a niche that you can dive deep into.Meeting in person is where I found some of my best friends and mentors in the space.