Maybe you wait and you get a pullback in the housing market (by the way, there's only been like 2...ever), but you'll be losing money on the cash that's sitting on the sidelines while you wait.

I imagine there is a lot of cash on the sidelines out there.

Smart you have a FT and PT job- I think you should essentially dive in.. but not make a "bad purchase" , since you can't win on the sidelines You absolutely want to have reserves when you invest, it would not be smart to have limited capital since if you have a major repair, you will be in trouble. 

Had I been waiting on the sidelines for my local real estate market to go south and time the market, I would’ve passed on two amazing opportunities I bought this year.

No one ever did anything great sitting on the sidelines!

I've got a few clients that waited on the sidelines and finally bought something a year later for 20-30% more. 

I have been watching from the sidelines for about 2 years now.

The wealthiest people on this earth are real estate investors and know this, they're not sitting on the sidelines during this time, that's a fact!

Regardless we rented in DC and got to watch the 2006-2007 real estate market meltdown from the sideline.3. 

I would go even further to say that the downturn here locally is still a ways off and you can miss out on making a lot of money by sitting on the side lines for the next year or 2 (as there is zero signs of slow down over the next 12 months from all the indicators I follow).