the PDX market is much the same  uber competitive..

Have them show you some remodeled houses so you can see your competition.

The MLS is highly competitive.

It is easy to feel competitive when speaking to someone with a similar strategy in your market.

I would need to get hard money to be competitive and close quickly.

Denver is ultra competitive and has been for a while.

Many investors are purchasing around the mid price range which makes it very competitive.

well I am going to offer some other type of adviceyour one of a million who want to make big money flipping houses.. hard to do very few do it well and its competitive as hellI would in your situation spend the 1k and get a real estate license and hire on with a top producer and get PAID to learn.. in a hot Denver market with high price points you can stumble to 50 to 100k a year... and you work weekends .that will give you a foundation and you will make far better contacts than at meet ups.. .meet ups that I have gone to at least in my perspective are a total waste of time.you have the experienced guys just looking to take advantage of guys like you.. hey bring me a deal and I will pay you a few grand... there is no future in that.. and if you have no money no experience you need to get both.. so that's one way to get into the industry and become a professional..

There is also going to be less competition. 

the #1 thing that i have learned about real estate is that pretty much everyone you deal with is going to be hilariously greedy. this isnt my experience 100% of the time, but it is like that 99% of the time.i dont know about you, but seeing a property that is reasonably valued at $120,000 listed for $205,000 is outright ridiculous to me. all that tells me is that the owner is not in a desperate situation. most deals can only be had when the seller is downright desperate from my experience.in terms of deals ive seen hat are good in florida - i have seen absolutely zero since then EXCEPT maybe one, which was in a slightly remote location. the name of the motel is the Tangerine Inn (find it on google) in Volusian county here in florida, and i believe its a 12 unit foreclosure a few years ago that was listed for $160,000. the low price piqued my interest, and upon inspection, i saw that it was actually a doable deal, but only average. there wasnt a lot of competition nearby, but the place was very old looking and outdated. it required about $90,000 to fully renovate, and maybe $40,000 to get a few rooms up and running at first.a few weeks ago, i checked the volusia county property appraiser and saw that it sold for $60,000 in 2014 which was not bad at all. i called them and they charged a ridiculously high $80 a night for a crappy room. my guess is that they average only about a 35% occupancy rate whereas i have about a 90% i maintain throughout the whole year.besides that, every pther motel deal ive found online through sites such as loopnet were hilariously bad. $600,000 for a 10 unit motel. $950,000 for a 13 unit motel in clearwater beach.i will add more to this soon