You could do a lot of due diligence and find a gem, but there is a lot of competition right now.  

Ignore the bravado you hear, work with good locations and basics and success WILL follow.Those Craftman's are real gems and can be a gold mine *IF* you can control the expenses.Use your last efforts as a cost estimator for the next one - - after all, that was reality and no bravado. 

Occasionally there are some gems on there. 

There are some gems in there though, absolutely.  

How many  square feet is that little gem?

How did you come across this gem?

After a parsing through some hot air and overly inflated numbers, we started finding some good gems in a growing market.

I am also looking forward to my first property and in order for me to put my skin in the game, I will have to take some calculated and manageable risks (similar to yours--the selling of stocks--but different) and just simply dive in once I find my gem and after feeling good about my calculations (which is another challenge).

We are agents in the area of Tri-Cities and would love to help you discover the hidden gems in our local area.

To make a long story short I noticed that student rentals in smaller college towns was the gem I was looking for.