I recommend picking an area you're familiar and comfortable with to get started.

By networking with local investors you will be able to possibly pick up a mentor and possibly others to invest.  

A deficiency can be obtained through a judicial foreclosure process however,  The Mortgagee must pick one action path there to pursue which will affect the potential time. 

In a managed mutual fund you are relying on the stock picking ability and the skill of the fund manager.  

I buy rentals in Westland and Livonia  (michigan/wayne country) and the MLS has dried up. there is pretty much a bidding war for anything under 90k. it's crazy out there. i thought i'd pick up at least 2-3 houses to add to my rental portfolio during the cold months, but that cold spell has not deterred people from buying. very disappointing.

I'm guessing you are looking to pick up these properties for a discount and you need to be careful of how you handle the situation.

I have a great credit score with about 7% debt to credit ratio but picking the proper finance method to acquire properties keeps me from pulling the preverbial trigger :(

Since my sales profession provides me with quite a bit of windshield time, the BP podcasts have been a great way to begin educating myself on the business – turning my car into a “Library on wheels”.I’ve begun reading the beginner material on BP as well as some of the book recommendations I’ve picked up from the podcasts.

Since my sales profession provides me with quite a bit of windshield time, the BP podcasts have been a great way to begin educating myself on the business – turning my car into a “Library on wheels”.I’ve begun reading the beginner material on BP as well as some of the book recommendations I’ve picked up from the podcasts.

Every once in awhile, I will though just to help reset some of my finances and cover some of the out of pocket costs I've had paying the hard money fees and closing costs on my deals.At the end of the day though, if you can find a deal where the purchase and rehab comes in at 70% or better of the ARV, you can essentially pick yourself up a house for about 4k to 5k out of pocket (assuming a typical bread and butter 100k loan).