The crappiest neighborhoods have less competition, the great neighborhoods have a lot more.People live in good and the bad areas.

That will be your competition.

My experience with Eagle Bank has been that they are very investor friendly (I was able to get 15% down at a very good rate) and extremely competitive rates on investment properties.  

Put property in LLC's name, and use commercial financing options (which are not at all competitive or comparable to residential loan products).2.

Do the right research, put in the right time, find the right property, and structure it the right way and you'll be leagues ahead of your colleagues or competition, depending on how you view them.

In NOVA area I recommend gathering the right team member to help execute in this competitive market.

It is much easier in the current competitive REI environment to enter homes and make offers when you don't have to wait around for other agents to get you in the door.  

@Ryan Dossey  suggest he target towns just north of him along I 5  like Williams  Willows  Colusa Esparto etc. these are all a 30 to 60 minute shot up 505 to 5... so might be worth it for him.these are smaller towns that probably have much less competition than were he is at in Fairfield although Fairfield being a military town Travis Airforce base  there is always some turn over there.. but lots of pressure no doubt.

There are a lot of alternative lenders out here with competitive rates.

Since you're new, if you're in a competitive market it ain't going to happen anytime soon especially in super competitive markets like LA where people are dropping 5 figures a month on just direct mail marketing not to mention their other pipelines.If you do direct mail correctly with enough targets then you can expect solid results.