If you're looking in MN, I'd suggest a strong more peripheral market like St Cloud for ex where you can find a decent duplex needing some cosmetic work for around 100-120k, fix it, refinance out.

Rohit, I'd say generally to focus on the peripheral sides of Austin - East or South.

@Ying Ding, I'd say generally to focus on the peripheral sides of Austin - East or South.

In your peripheral vision you can catch the end of the dining room table just off the kitchen, or the tall hallway leading to the bedrooms and upstairs bath.

I do have shiny object syndrome at times and always need to remind myself to focus on my One Thing at any given moment and not let the peripherals or future stuff distract me from whats important now. 

I only use LED motion & dusk-to-dawn but I hardwire them.In stairwells etc I also use the motion LED's as the EXIT lighting has peripheral LED's that also light the hallways up.Honeywell 5000 Lumen LED Utility Light - Gray $39 is one I like.

The people who are making money now in these markets are those that bought property 15-20 years ago, or inherited property from family and have no loan to payoff.In the peripheral areas, things are a bit cheaper, but the rental income is lower too, and your probably making around the same margins.

Scalability and integration of related peripherals a plus.

That gives you the opportunity to adjust the option price for that second year if the market surges higher than you expected.Yes, you should have an attorney review your docs, but I would not ask them to draft them from scratch: They'll charge you an appendage or two!

I think the real value of BP is not in being an alternative to training but more as as comprehensive site offering multiple perspectives and experiences in many, many different areas involving real estate investing and peripheral services, like brokering, lending, wholesaling and property management.