I will concede that you can be pulled up or down by the environment you live in, but that is not the main factor. 4.

Thank You @Adam Cherko1 @Mindy Jensen: An inspiring story from an inspiring woman delivered candidly and in a comfortable environment, where multi-millionaires and in-debt college grads (myself) ate pizza and drank luke-warm beer while discussing any and all aspects of real estate and building wealth.

Any advice for a new investor in the current housing environment?

I find myself doing it as well... but your right have to really watch it in a business environment not to grab your phone and start looking at it..  

Given the lower rate environment now, I would have thought this should have been easier, even if I pay up for an investors rate.

I highly recommend checking out your local REIA or any other networking groups to start fishing for private money.

In this environment you'll likely have to pay more for your contractor to compensate for the extra hassle.

The other option is to find a new Agent and have them fish for deals in the neighborhood you are interested in.  

Off market properties are getting gobbled up by investors with big networks of real estate agents, loan officers etc, so us "little fish" get very little attention when agents find deals before they hit the MLS... the numbers rarely make sense even if you find one...... so unless you are basing a good deal solely on appreciation and tax benefits etc, its hard swallow buying in this marketSo the appeal of out of state is that at least you have a chance to find some properties than even have a remote chance of being a reasonable deal....you can run numbers on 50....look at 20....put offers on 5...... in CA, with us "little guys" that's never going to happen.

That seems way too good to be true in this current interest rate environment.