Hope this doesn't break any rules on the forum but I don't want to sit on the sideline watching, I want to start making progress! 

Then again everything in my market is looking like that, so I will have to sit on the sidelines to add to the portfolio if I back out.

I'm new and hate being on the sidelines, so I have been looking at long distance also.

REI has historically been very competitive.Cash is not king in real estate investing...deal flow is (lots of it).If you don't start now, you will have no experience or relationships if a correction occurs.If a correction occurs, lending/capital sources can dry up.Investors over-estimate their ability to pull the trigger when prices are crashing and there is no end in sight.If you can generate even a small positive IRR from real estate during an economic recession, idle cash is the risky choice (and is very costly over long periods).All properties and markets will not loose significant value in the next down cycle (real estate is local and good locations will always perform well).Investors can add as much or more value to a property than the potential loss of value in a downturn.If we have capital that we have to put to work, prudent real estate can be the flight to safety.I don't like investing into a hot market but sitting on the sidelines for years is not a viable strategy...just have to be really careful.If you are a market appreciation only investor, ignore this post...that can require some market timing.Interested in everyone thoughts.

And if you bought in CA 5 years ago in most markets you got to ride the appreciation title wave that those that dont invest in CA say you should never do and your just lucky but there are tons of lucky millionaires in CA that this happened to.So you need to define what a deal is how much work you want to put into it. and in my mind if your in the mindset of cash flow real estate for the remainder of your life then dont get put on the side lines becasue you think the market is a tad to high or that some future event is going to create a buying opp .. 

Interested real estate investors are those who sit on the sidelines and dream about getting 'just the right circumstances' and hope for a day when they might have a real estate portfolio.

Interested real estate investors are those who sit on the sidelines and dream about getting 'just the right circumstances' and hope for a day when they might have a real estate portfolio.

But you never know how long things will last and yet you don’t want to sit on the sidelines because that is just an excuse people use not to do anything.

Cashing out and sitting on the sidelines is also a plan.  

My name is Chris and after sitting on the sidelines for years, I am ready to start finally investing in Real Estate.