As Paul mentioned, participating in the local REIA is a great way to network, learn, and build confidence in your investing. 

I personally have looked at many places in some neighborhoods but have never felt comfortable enough or confident enough to invest there. 

After all the toil and hard work, It all helped me feel more confident and comfortable in the business even though I have much more to learn.

I actually do not see all that much market appreciation potential over the next 5 or so years here (and likely most other markets) ... this is normal for this market, the appreciation is not linear, it happens in short rocket ride spurts usually after a soft patch; no way of really predicting with confidence when exactly that will happen but we are definitely not in a soft patch at the moment and 2012-2015 was the last rocket ride and it was a fun one :). 

Prior to this morning I had never put in an offer on a property before, and after making a number of phone calls and just going for it, I now feel SO much more confident in making purchase offers.

I feel 100% confident that we can buy and flip a house now, if the deal presented itself, and do well.  

Especially anything related to utls those are all wiped out.. any city liens etc etc.. the ONLY thing that comes senior to a 1st DT or mortgage is  Ad valorum tax's and IRS liens. ( which IRS sunsets as you know )pretty straight forward out this way.. you guys have it hard were you work that's for sure.But that's also why our sales are so competitive its pretty simple to go and bid and be confident you OK..

I'm just not to confident someone willing to pay up to be in this area is going to want to spend his/her weekends mowing a 1/2 acre property and cleaning a pool.

You need a realtor who is also an experienced investor to help shape your expectations, help give you confidence, and call you out when you aren't thinking about something the right way.Message me if you want to have a quick phone conversation and I can help get you going in the right direction.

I'm active in Brampton right now, not for any particular reason other than that I learned that market and now have a good idea of what a deal looks like there, which makes me be more confident in my offer prices.