Join real estate investment clubs.Have clear investment goals.Understand the local market and potential growth aspects.Get in touch with a local agent or investor and shorten your learning curve and save you a lot of headaches as they tend to understand the market better.All the best!

I recently saw this ABJ article and your comment about Austin's population growth reminded me of it.

I was wondering in your opinion our of melbourne beach, indianatlantic, indian harbour beach and satellite beach- which one you thought had the most potentiol for growth in the future? 

It seems like you have the right mind set to focus on long term growth and it can still be done in the greater Sacramento area.

With the growth Idaho is currently seeing, I'm trying to decide if the demand will stay high enough that occupancy and rental rates will offset the purchase price. 

Columbus, Ohio is a great area to invest in real estate because of our increased job and population growth!

Own properties and partner of a PMC.Started out doing everything myself, but soon realized that growth would be capped without delegation.So, started a PMC to handle management and focus on big picture issues.Most property owners fail to understand that EVERY company has efficiency/waste issues and the bigger the company the more waste there typically is.

You can also check meetup.com or search facebook for real estate investment groups, clubs, or meetings in your area.A mentor can really accelerate your growth, no matter what level you're currently at.

While SD might experience massive appreciation, your wallet won't see it.Now, compare that to another growth market like the Raleigh metro ... that same original $500k can be split into 2 townhouses that will kick off $400-500/mo in positive cash flow ... use a portion of the $90k that you were going to sink into the negative SD condo and pick up a third unit. 

This is primarily for the overall returns from equity growth (appreciation and loan paydown) WAY more than the cash flow.