I've watched countless videos on YouTube with Grant Cardone and many other big time real estate investors but I'm still in that stage where I feel like I don't quite know enough to approach my first deal confidently.

Don’t be offended or over improve your property to make it nice .

Typically, siding doesnt improve rent. 

To suggest or infer that if OOSI didn't come in and buy these properties that they would somehow majestically be better taken care of and the quality of the blighted neighborhoods would improve is just silly.  

It's really tough to buy cash flow right now, you'll most likely have to create it by improving the property and increasing rents. 

I am definitely doing some of my numbers to see where we stand financially and see where we could improve. ( credit card debt, school loans, etc. ) how long after u decided to REI did u you purchase your first home?

Hello everyone,It's nice to know that there is a community of property investors here at bigger pockets.I am Victor from Australia (Melbourne).I am new to property investing and still learning, reading and listening to youtube, pod casts and books on investing in general.I am extremely intrigued by the idea of generating passive income through real estate investment ever since coming across rich dad poor dad a month ago and more recently, bigger pockets podcasts.As a start, I plan to learn more about the mechanics of investing in real estate before taking steps to actually start looking at my local market (Northern Suburbs of Melbourne)In fact, I have already formulated some short term goals to accomplish: 1.

Having said that, the property I was considering for a client was one that we would have spent a lot of money improving (roof, ac, cosmetic) - yet it passed a recent inspection. 

I am thinking of adding solar panels (owned not leased) to the property to improve value. 

That said, here's my short input: Richmond has generally been a crappy city in the past (note: not the surrounding areas), however they've put a lot of effort into improving over the past 15 or so years and it's apparently a happening city.