I have $150k sitting in the bank, just waiting to invest in something. 

Because of where Redding sits in this sort of bowl in the mountain range, smoke from even far away fires will sit on top of the town.

Just let it sit or try to put it in say, a REIT or something until I’m ready to buy?

And my clients have to scramble (usually then choosing to talk with one of the local lenders I told them about) and we get to closing....they're stressed out, and I'm like "local lenders have a brick and mortar office you can go to, sit and talk with them eye to eye, and they have a track record with my past clients"...local lenders most always out-perform the large national lenders that advertise how great they are.Often, people will end up refinancing after 1-5 years anyway, so the absolute lowest rate is often a moot point.  

I am doing my best to network in the area but find it hard to connect with individuals who are willing to sit down and take me serious.

Honestly, there are already way too many out of towers and developers from other states and countries who do not live in Houston and understand the culture and what the city is like buying and holding property that actual residents would like to own and actually improve rather than sitting in a room 500 miles away collecting money for nothing.  

I've seen it multiple times where they take your application, conditionally approve it, then sit on it for months only to come up with BS as the last second that should have been caught when you first applied for the loan.

The market has cooled the last several weeks and some properties are sitting for days or weeks. 

Since I'm not familiar with Seattle, FIND A LOCAL ROCKSTAR AGENT in the area, and offer a fee for them to sit and go over the offer(s) and the property you are considering.  

If they go out the national tenants would not want the space so could sit for awhile.