Should I concentrate on bringing my net worth up through saving or investing using other, unleveraged means for a few years before investing in real estate?

I am looking to direct mail my market but will be making my flyer with a concentration on finding people who would be willing to sell me their property using owner financing.

Build yourself a criteria of what exactly you are looking for in terms of price, area, duplex OR triplex, sqft, add-value capabilities etc, what are the rents.When you have your criteria i recommend then reaching out to a professional agent to help assist your concentrated search through the MLS, while getting your financing in order of what price point you want to purchase at.Not in the D.C area myself, but feel free to PM me with any questions.

Our goal is to now sell the bulk of these units to consolidate and expand our concentration in 3-20 unit buildings here in Connecticut.

Your investments are typically far more concentrated in a single city.  

What states are you concentrating?

Concentrate on what is important.

What I know about Buffalo is that besides Detroit it has the highest concentration of vacant properties in the country.

It seems to me concentrating in one geographic area would make most sense (and be the best utilization of my resources starting out).

Crime is concentrated in high-poverty neighborhoods; it's a common story across the U.S.