Of course, you may want to live in an exciting neighborhood with exciting neighbors who drive pricey cars and host wine samplings and brag about public elementary schools that will rocket their brats straight into Harvard in a capsule made of melted-down silver spoons.

I should have been more proactive and fired him sooner but my personal life was exploding at the same time: amidst this incredible nonsense my fiancé became paralyzed in 9/2017 due to stage 4 cancer and died in 2/2018.

Hi Eddie,You want to do all the shopping right in the beginning during the pre-approval stage. 

Check out the Meet up in Mesa on January 23rd, https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/65...It has a good turn out of people in different stages of the investing.

In your ads, I would have information about how it could be great for health science/medical students because of how close it is to the medical school, hospital, etc but also include other desirable features or major employers. (.5 miles to X hospital, 5 blocks to whatever great elementary school, ride your bike to X university!)

I suppose getting wrapped up in large profit margins should not necessarily be a main focus at this stage of the game.

You do have to be of the mindset that you are likely going to be buying at retail, and we are in the late stage of an upward trend. 

As apartments go, we're in a stage where good value add opportunities are most difficult to make happen than they were 4-6 years ago.Buy for cash flowUse long term debtOnly buy in markets with growing employment & population and a diverse economyMake sure you can handle increased vacancy & a possible drop in rents @Russell Brazil makes a great point about people overestimating their future willingness to buy in the midst of a recession.

Right now I am in the educational stage of investing in Real Estate.

At this stage of the cycle we are seeking quality assets in the B- to A- range where we can further add some value but most importantly; greatly manage downside risk.