I purchased my first property cash - it was great value for the property but was too low to do an immediate cash out (less than 30k) so Im waiting not only for 75% LTV refi after 6 months (per my lender) and in the mean time and sitting on the sidelines with other potential deals b/c I do not want to get in over my head, no matter how good the deals I have to pass up are.

If I were you I would be waiting on the sidelines because as soon as this is cleaned up and a cert is issued be ready for a deal...

I decided that sitting on the sidelines trying to learn everything wasn't working for me so I decided to go cautiously full steam ahead.

Hi BP, I'm Jonathan.I've been on the forums sidelines for a few weeks, and I'm excited I've finally made it on the field.

This country is full of people with money sitting on the sidelines making 1%.

When starting as a side line you do not have the sometimes immense pressure of having to do a deal to create cash flow to live on.

Since you are anti-debt (nothing wrong with that) and growing your portfolio slowly, I would suggest taking on a sideline to boost your income.

DF won't cause a problem if all is well, the deal goes smoothly, they pay on time etc,,but if you have to evict someone (they will say foreclose),,,someone later decides the deal is bad, etc,,that's when you will have a problemJust because someone will sign something today, and it 'seems ok', doesn't mean they won't have some lawyer looking for any loopholes later, which is when the problems will happen.I negotiate long, lengthy agreements on a daily basis (not REI), a deal could involve $50k in attorneys fees on each side,,,but we joke, that we throw the APA in the file cabinet, and as long as everybody does what they are suppose to, its never looked at again,,but the one deal that goes bad is why you spend the money to make sure everything is perfect,,,I was considering offering some lease to own deals before DF,,at this point I'm sitting on the sidelines seeing what happens, people far smarter than me with more money to throw at this will get it figured out

I'm a licensed contractor and real estate salesperson in Mass, and I've personally done a couple of rehabs, a tear down (for my now-primary residence) and had some success investing in non-performing notes (@NPN) during the height of the financial crisis.I'm back in the game after a couple years on the sidelines.

But there are still a lot of people sitting on the sidelines, which is another indicator to me that its now time for me to buy.