Before you buy you 1st build you awareness of real estate investing, potential team members that you will need over the journey that will likely last the rest of your life and commence recruiting people and investing time seeking out knowledge and WISDOM.Wisdom would say buy in the down cycles of the market and refi cheap when rates are low but investors often have ants in their pants.  

I don't think most sponsors understand the legal implications and unfortunately it's been 15 years since a cycle has caused the tides to go out, so very few do but once these issues go to court, judges will hold sponsors to a much higher standard.

To get some insight into the development process, take a look at this thread I am writing, walking through an actual multi-family development project in SoCal: Life Cycle of a CA MF Development ProjectI am an offer of help, feel free to post questions here or you can send DM. 

Economists:It is said that there are 4 phases of a real estate cycle: (1) RECESSION (supply greatly exceeds demand and high vacancy rate); (2) RECOVERY (rental growth remains stagnant with little signs of new construction but the economy feels like it is headed in right direction); (3) EXPANSION (job growth is strong and increased demand for housing. 

The people that get killed in every down cycle are those that were banking on the future and did not have enough cash to get through the bad times.

However, generally there is about a month or two lag with DSCR Loans between what is being quoted today and what is funding today due to deal cycle, and while there has been a ton of volatility recently, newer quoted rates are dropping and I'd expect our average to be a bit lower by the time July is through and for August - probably in the low sevens range

Eventually, someone will have a better looking site than both andy and jerryl, and they will both switch their look to align with that website more, and the cycle goes on.

Investing in multiple markets can mitigate risk and provide exposure to different economic cycles.

Indianapolis has proven to be a stable market with great returns, without the boom/bust cycle you've seen in other areas.I'd love to discuss how our properties can fit into your investment strategy and help you achieve your goals.

The  market continued to act like there's no consequences.My RE focus was post-labor day, but that was more family oriented and convenient with RE cycles.