In Austin right now, I'd say our sweet spot is somewhere between $180k-$250k to acquire properties.

My post was not really a 'you can find 100's of good deals on auction.com and other online auction sites (Xome.com, Hubzu)', but rather an anecdotal account of how I acquired my 2nd property.

I'm underway with a rental rehab we just acquired, the porch has tile.  

What can a new investor do to acquire a house in a competitive market? 

We are starting our journey Ian have acquired two houses for rentals in the past few months and would like to keep building our portfolio in our LLC.  

I am currently overseas for the next 2 months, and I want to know how I can begin a marketing campaign for duplexes to 4plexes while I am abroad. I want to hit the ground running when I return home.

As Mary and I were both wrapping up two of our own fix and flips, we decided to become partners as we moved our businesses forward.We made our goal to acquire 3 - 4 deals by the end of December - we hit 3 fix and flip deals by year's end.  

That would mean you'd need to identify a buy and hold property that you can use those funds towards acquiring.

I have managed to acquire 4 of them through 2 personal loans, a few bucks of my own, a land contract, and a small loan from family.

I'm trying to see if there is a conflict, but so far, it seems that as long as I don't utilize both licenses on the same transaction, I'm good to go-- example, if I have to foreclose on a loan, and then acquire the property, it would be improper for me to list the house myself; I would use another Realtor.Or, if I'm working with a buyer as a Realtor, I cannot offer mortgage help using my MLO license.