I'm conservative by nature but I have learned I am decent at underwriting but not nearly as good at economic forecasts.  

Some of the houses I have looked at through my realtor have decent cash flow, but when I checked out the zip code of the properties on USA.com I see a negative growth rate in those zip codes.

The #1 biggest struggle is getting off-market motivated seller leads, houses at a decent discount.The #2 biggest issue... is friggin contractors.

Zillow so far has a pretty decent engagement, while others like Craigslist are fairly silent.

Let me give you 2 scenarios to help make my point.Scenario 1 - Investor A has a few properties, lots of stocks, lots of liquid capital, decent retirement, high income earner, single, no kids.   

Hearing that all the half decent ones will be this busy.

Not by a long shot

The home needed a decent amount of work as it had fallen into disrepair for about 10 years.

Shots fired!

If the house is an obvious fixer and has other compelling factors, i.e. it's vacant, thus we know it's probably a pain for the seller, then we may give it a second shot.