There are some useful tips regarding investing in condos.

We absolutely love Austin and we feel like the opportunities in real estate, if done carefully and correctly, could be pretty lucrative (not to mention fun).We're contemplating downsizing our current home and using a large portion of the profits to start investing.

Quick Tip: If you haven't already, I'd look into some PM software to make your accounting/management life easier.  

Less calculations before buying as most expenses are taken care of by the tenant.Enough reading already go get you first property as there's no better time to start then now.

Think of it this way: if a hard money lender gives you a loan, takes their down payments, points, and monthly interest, they could care less if your project is a success of a flop.

I do not currently own any rental properties, and I have a single mortgage now for my own house.Anyone care to comment about my chances of these mortgages going through before I even waste my time at a bank and take a hit on my credit score for a mortgage inquiry?

Take care.

Driving for dollars will allow you to find those distressed properties that look vacant or have not been taken care of which could lead to a motivated seller.

I do know that Cleveland is enjoying an economic revival based on healthcare (Cleveland clinic regional hub), but long-term, I don't know what that will translate into population-wise. 

We still need to be very careful there because of the demand.