As I look back at the last two years there is no shortage of reasons or excuses I could come up with as to why it took this long for me to get my first deal done. 

I cant speak for the whole country, but can say in this area, there is a major shortage of not only workers, but skilled workers.

If there are a lot of houses to choose from, it *could* slow things down for you, however if there is a shortage of inventory probably not an issue.

When those things are done correctly, it works beautifully, and you can certainly become wealthy investing in RE, like most other things in life.Unfortunately because of the Feds monetary policies over the last few years, they have essentially promoted a re-hash of 02-07, and there is no shortage of people on BP who promote the SAME ridiculously high leverage program as Gurus, and then turn around and bash those Gurus systems for being irresponsible. 

Feel them out and see what they're willing to do.You may be able to get one of them to give you a loan for the shortage.

Raimondo,The politicians and our government agencies know we have a housing shortage.  

Baylor is growing, and there's a general shortage of rental properties in the surrounding areas.  

@Amiee Thompson as @Luc Boiron mentioned, there probably wouldn't be a shortage of investors if you are able to find good deals, do the analysis .

So there's a large demand to live there because of the location, schools and amenities, but there's a shortage of the number of properties available. 

There is no shortage of the first type of house and far fewer of the second one.Columbia has many areas that are quickly getting better and there are plenty of opportunities to make money in those neighborhoods.