Investing in Peoria sounds intriguing, especially since you’re drawn to the area and its industrial charm.

Credit Karma uses a Vantage scoring model (which we do not use in the mortgage industry), but the trend will be the same as mortgage scores. 

@Jenna SchulzeAs a newbie investor with limited capital, I’d invest close to home.Invest in areas you know well.I’ve been in the RE industry since 1978 and people always ask me:What’s the best market to invest in?

Entire US industries have been decimated due to an exploitative trade imbalance.

I worked with an agent who was okay but I became an agent myself because I became so interested in the industry and want to help other people build wealth and become investors themselves.

I would recommend just reading up more on both industries and make a decision from there.

I've been wanting to expand out of my market in Iowa, and see that the Winter Haven, Lakeland, Haines City areas are similar to purchase points as my market.

You're in a pretty hot market. 

I was wondering if most wholesalers have stopped using direct mail and just moved to google/facebook to find deals?

Quote from @Adam Macias: Wholesaling as it is today will be a thing of the past.It’ll truly be strange to even hear people and gurus trying to make big money off it.The more people try wholesaling but then end up not having an end buyer or cancelling contracts or trying weird things like novations, the more all of real estate will be regulated and cause requirements like licensing to be able to transact more than just your personal resident purchase.Which I don't know why hasn't happened sooner.Here's all the states (in red or yellow) requiring a license to wholesale or at least have started the process:Credit: REITipsterI think licensing and regulation is a beautiful thing that should happen if you plan to be an wholesaler and do more than one deal... which is going to be the case for anyone taking this business seriously.Or even it being regulated to need a real estate agent to do more than one deal outside of buying a personal residence.I've had plenty of failed attempts with agents in pursuit of wholesale deals and I know exactly why, it's not because the agent couldn't find me deals, it's just not practical to think there's opportunity for the numbers a wholesaler needs to make a profit on top of everyone else needing to these days.Because the only sellers who truly can sell at a deep enough discount are usually those who ran out of time and just didn't do something sooner with their situation.I know many coaches and gurus will disagree with me but there’s no regulations on youtube gurus and what they teach either.If we look at the current state of the market in hot cities, the availability of online resources to the average homeowner, how many deals can you possibly believe are available at 70% of ARV?