This is such a critical step and you should definitely take your time and make sure you pick the best market for your goals.

Having a great team to include investor friendly property management, home inspector, contractors, lenders, insurance agents is critical to my success.

It is critical to have a broker you like and trust who will guide you to gems and away from bad neighborhoods, risky properties, etc.

A good inspector is critical Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Yeah putting money aside for CapEx is critical.

These include:Get started faster: Let’s face it—while reading articles like this and absorbing all the podcasts and books on real estate investing is great, jumping in and actually doing your first deal is critical, and what you learn from experience often dwarfs knowledge from all the research sources by far.

Not that important on small jobs, but critical on a large project. 

Continuous training/knowledge gathering is critical to your success.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The feeling you get when you are at a crossroads and have to make a critical decision is daunting, but it's also where you have the opportunity to become unstoppable.It's not easy to run a real estate business, but if you can recognize that feeling in the moment and make the right decision, you will be well on your way to achieving your goals.