There's one dominant realization I didn't learn till around age 30.

I would much rather have a professional that pays for insurance and who has read many contracts do mine than have someone who only sees a few contracts a year. 

Conyers is an area with a lot of available land for building so mostly larger builders(over 300 homes a year) dominate.

@Trevor Turner, I agree with @Gene Hacker suggestion to quickly read a few books to get a better overall understanding of real estate investing.  

So I imagine that for a newbie like myself, I may have to build a strategy around that since the "big boys" are dominating at the auctions.

Become an EXPERT at one thing and DOMINATE IT!

@Jonathan Jewell, like most anything else you can ask for recommendations :)I use Gene Trowbridge.

Hi Gene, If you are buying for cash (or with hard money) your closing costs may be less, more like 2k.

Every world dominating billionaire has a tower in a big city.

The mix is important to me because allegedly VRBO guests are more into planning ahead and ABB guests are more into spontaneous trips, as reflected in the fact that VRBO dominates my bookings in the summer, but ABB does the rest of the year.