I think the best rates are achieved when you select small local banks.

If so then what areas / zipcodes would you all recommend to achieve a decent cash flow even carrying a mortgage with about 25 percent down ?

Being a bit risk averse, I did want to build myself a bit of a financial cushion before jumping in and I recently achieved that goal.I am new to Bigger Pockets and have very much enjoyed listening to the BP podcasts, watching videos from various sources, reading real estate related content, and I have also attended my first local REIA group meeting (San Diego Creative Investors Association, SDCIA).

This is great for me, and if I can achieve this valuable first deal I figure more will be coming soon.  

Keeping the word guarding in mind really helps me, since, as I'm sure is true for most people, distractions seem to be one of my greatest challenges on the path towards achieving my goals.  

You should be working on your long-term vision but right now you don't have any unique and valuable skills to achieve your vision, so you don't have the option to be specific about your path right now.See that this is the case, your path right now is to find any way you can gain experience in real estate and/or real estate investing.

The easiest way to achieve this in our neighborhood is to househack, without having to tie up much more capital for downpayment.

@Gabriel Daneliuc I've never built but I'd much rather have cashflow day 1 even if it doesn't hit your 1% rule metric than to speculate, build, lease-up, and hope you can achieve market rents.

I’m already making six figures so even then my thinking is that investing in real estate, gold and silver is the only real way to achieve financial freedom.

If you have a proper tax strategy and diversify your portfolio from flips and holds you can achieve a net 0 tax.