As a newbie, it's kind of hard to gauge what the "sweet spot" is.

(Doesn't mean driving Ferraris) but it does mean being so frugal you don't buy the bottle of wine you truly want.

Investors in Durham - Have you found a particular sweet spot in Durham in terms of your price range you'll buy a property to for rent?  

... using similar calculations as Justin I have come to the same conclusion that in some cases lower value assets can be less profitable even with higher rent-to-value ratios for the very reason that CapEx doesn't scale with rent, though like Justin I don't claim to have longterm experience with these assets but believe the CapEx math though it may seem unbelievable to some ...One thing NOT mentioned, though, is that the CapEx vs time is NOT linear, though the calculations suggested linearize them ... this means that there are "sweet spots" to be exploited, and exploiting these sweet spots becomes especially important in the lower value assets.

Keep in mind however that the sweet bank loans with low interest rates are much easier to come by when you have a W2 income and maybe you are not entirely dependent on the cash flow to live on.

As you know you want to get the second cheapest wine.

There's a sweet spot between those two ends of the spectrum where if you can afford to flip multiple properties at a time using all of your own capital, you wouldn't have a need for hard money.Best of luck on your investing journey!

I held it for a few years and then sold it as part of a sweet deal to a great uncle who had sentimental attachments to the property

That and while it sucks, it's not out of the realm for commuting options to go from sac to your sweet tech job that only requires you to be on site few days a week.

If I wanted a real estate system predicated on lead generation getting an car in my driveway I could hustle Mary Kay for a sweet pink Cadillac.