I bought my first rental in March '07 and then waited patiently until Sept. '09 until I found another deal, then another and another in rapid succession.

The eviction process thanks to the court moves surprisingly rapidly so people pay there rent cause if they don't they know they have to pack up there stuff ...

As you drive away from downtown, it gets rapidly worse.I do a lot of contract serve work with Habitat for Humanity in that specific area.

This is even more so if the market is rapidly increasing or decreasing in value.

My life is changing rapidly, so I really have to make something happen.

I am a member of an REI group here in Grand Rapids so I have a good network of people I can connect with there.  

@Brock Adams  the issue come to find out is the attorney has to hire and pay for a title abstractor as an independent contractor.. so they are reluctant to do that until they think the deal is going to close. so I have to pay for it up front. ( cost of doing business on my end)Where as in on the Left coast were we use title and escrow companies the county records are digitized and in their in house title plant and they can spit out title commitments very cheaply and rapidly. and you NEVER pay for them in advance.. and if I cancel a deal they just suck it up as cost of doing business.. unlike a closing attorney in SC they expect to get paid as they have paid a 3rd party vendor ( and I can't blame them at all either ).. its just wild how far behind some of the east coast states are in getting title into the 21st century or at least the second 2/3rds of it   :)

So get out of your comfort zone and get out and meet the people in YOUR area that are doing what you want to do.And a special thanks to the WMRPOA, if you're in West Michigan/Grand Rapids area you owe it to yourself to check it out.

She's not much of a looker right now but this tiny house (912 sq ft) features 2 bedrooms 1 bath and what will be a spacious kitchen...Scooped this lil puppy off the MLS at what I think is a pretty good deal ($61k) especially considering this house sits on a nice 50 x 100 lot next to park and that vacant lots in the area are going for $60-75k...In fact, here is why I believe I bought the home while most investors passed on it...At one point and time the above space was a kitchen... you can't tell but the floor has also sank by 6 inches or so (termites)...If we were in another place financially we would keep this in our Buy & Hold portfolio as land values are rapidly increasing in this area because of it's close proximity to downtown Houston and several major freeways. 

Wow, that's some rapid growth.