It's a great time to get started.   

When looking for a QI referrals are always a great place to start.

Then once you know how you will get the deals, that is where the fun starts..

I stuck to it and it has treated me well over the years.I did not start investing ( other than buying a home to live in) till many years later..

Hey George, congratulations on starting your real estate journey! 

It's basically built on top of WordPress core and they made it simple and easy to navigate.Where in wordpress, you have to get some plugins (some are also monthly paid) to achieve the same kind of functionality.SEO is not just about having a good hosting/platform and features, it's about utilizing the features in a way so your brand has visibility and people that come into your website gets proper value of their time spent.Here's a table comparison for you that I wrote earlierNow whether you have a carrot or a wordpress site, for SEO, you will need:- Website Credibility (Personalisation)- On Page SEO (Keywords, Titles, Meta Tags, Description, Image ALT Tags & Optimization etc)- Social Media Presence (Regular Posts/Videos and Engaging with your audience)- Monthly Content Publishing (Regular Blogs & Location Pages)- Monthly OFF Page SEO (Citations, Backlinks)Now if you consider the cost, end of the day it's quite same for both the platforms.But if you are starting fresh, I see no point of having their 180$ plan, you can continue with 89$/month plan from carrot and assign someone in your team to put regular blog posts and update the location pages.Or if you want to use WordPress and get someone setup the website and do regular content updates for you, then It can take 3-6 months to start seeing visible growth in organic traffic if all the things mentioned above are taken care of.

There's no real wrong answer to your question, but the right answer starts with you figuring out what general direction you want to aim in. 

Louisville is fantastic for cash flow and is a safe place to start since we don't typically get caught up in the roller coaster effect of steep appreciation followed by sudden pull backs when the market isn't red hot.  

Quote from @Jackson Harris: Hey Kai'ler for our STR portfolio and what our investors do is start getting it listed on Facebook/Zillow rental/Furnish Finder/etc now as a LTR for that time period you're talking about.

Your financial background is a huge asset, and it’s great that you’re starting locally in Milwaukee while keeping an eye on future expansion.If you’re looking to connect with like-minded investors, the Rental Property Association of Wisconsin is a fantastic resource for networking with rental portfolio owners, accessing legal resources, and finding contractors. https://www.aasew.org/For mentors, funding sources, and flippers, the Milwaukee REIA is another great group to explore. https://www.milwaukeereia.com/I’m a member of both and find unique value in each—maybe we’ll cross paths at a future meeting!