I've known about bigger pockets for some time, and after listening to a dozen or so podcasts in the past couple of weeks, I find myself distracted at work creating an account.  I've been involved in real estate since ...

Im a buy and hold investor looking to get immersed in auctions/REO.

Philadelphia = firstPittsburgh = second(And not because of the outcome from the last football game played by the NFL teams from those two cities ;)  )

You really need to immerse yourself and learn all you can.

I've learned to immerse myself with real estate awareness regarding neighborhoods, crime, schools, trends and funding.

Cayce, First off welcome... we are new to the BiggerPockets forum, but have immersed ourselves into learning everything we can on Investing and the area we we live in.  

You must be fully immersed in your selected markets.

Or perhaps they see going the TK route as a way to gradually immerse themselves into the world of real estate investing with less perceived risk than if they were to take on everything (sourcing, rehabbing, property managing) directly themselves as newbies. 

While that is true, the fear of failure can often cause "Paralysis of Analysis" which is basically becoming too immersed in book knowledge and information and never actually acting on your knowledge.

Its great though, no matter how much you prepare, read, listen, you only truly learn by immersing yourself into the process.