If short sales are going to be your niche, make sure you have plenty of time and patience and enjoy sitting on the phone for hours.Regarding the courses, I own Dwan's course and it is pretty good.

If you're looking to buy houses around asking price for long-term rentals, then any agent that gets back to you will do.On the other extreme, if you're looking to buy houses creatively with 100% seller financing, then going to just about any agent would be a complete waste of time.For anything else you'll want to find an agent who specializes in that niche, whether you're a first-time buyer or looking for a vacation property.Finding agents for investments is by far the hardest because lots of agents say they're willing to present lots of offers, or understand investing, or invest themselves, but they're lying.

Appraisal might be a tad high, but I don't know the property or how unique it is so that opinion doesn't mean a whole lot.

I have been listening to the podcasts, watching the webinars, reading the books, watching the YouTube channels, all to learn and prepare.I am in a unique situation and would like to reach out to the community for advice and insights.

Read books on investing in real estate, listen to the podcasts, attend webinars and stay active on the forums while connecting with other investors in your area and pick a niche.

Here is the short version:  go listen to the podcasts and figure out what niche you are interested in, and set key words to notify you. 

I love that there are contributors here with many different niches and experience levels.I've been interested in real estate investing for the past few years but haven't had the money or true motivation to get serious about it until now.  

I'm not really worried about my rentals, as we have a niche market that we manage, which is very amenity rich, unlike those el-cheapo illegal 1 night specials you are seeing everyone and their cousin posting in Bozeman. 

This is a very unique specialization.I think your best bet is to research a city or state where there are many people who do Equine and research accountant's nearby.However, it also depends on how he is getting his income.Is he just a W-2 earner for a person who owns a equine business?

You have a real estate market uniquely insulated to downturns by numerous sources of housing pressure.