I live in Bowling Green, KY (about middle ways between Nashville, TN and Louisville KY) and there isn't a local meetup for real estate investors.  

I live in Nashville, TN and am looking to build a detached 2 garage with 2/1 apartment above.

Colorado (Denver specifically) is super hot and expensive right now...it might not be ideal for getting started.But I would still recommend trying it first in NJ (using HELOC funding) before you go all out and sell and move.

Hot Water? 

If you can accomplish that (TOUGH IN A HOT MARKET LIKE DFW), you and your roommate can live in a 2/1 or 2/2 apartment in the building for "free".

I heard that (in general) it is bad to look for buy & hold properties in neighborhoods that are hot "fix and flip" neighborhoods.

So do your homework and with the hot prices right now, be very careful and run all your numbers utilizing the bp calculators if you don't already have a spreadsheet ready to go.I hope this helps and best of luck to you!

It could land you in some serious hot water!

I've got a hot market in Atlanta and there are a lot of distressed properties and lots of opportunities to evaluate but things move really fast.

If foreclosures are still hot, it's something I might look into, but I've never bought a property for cash, so I have no idea what to do when I get there.