There's an agent here who {over} uses the phrase "awaiting your decorating touches", which translates into "the shag carpet may be gone, but the appliances are still harvest gold and nothing else has been touched since 1978".  

Read blogs, post questions, and the podcasts are gold!

In other words, do you think that so long as we don't stop 3 feet from gold, we will eventually succeed?

I'd recommend keeping it in the bank until you have learned enough to make intelligent investment decisions.Personally, I would do the following:500,000 - Gold, Bitcoin - Always prudent to hedge your bets.1,000,000 - Cash.

I don't have any experience but they seem like gold mines.

I would lose money going backwards in income working on such stuff.If people have time but limited money or are not willing to spend the money then on Bigger Pockets here if you go search and read topics there is a lot of gold in there.

I'm located close to the Gold Hill Mesa development.

In regards to buyers agents, I think the good ones are worth their weight in gold.  

Thanks a million for your advice this is like gold dust !

If you can find local deals (within 2 hours of where you live) that make sense, they can be gold mines. 2 hours seems to be the max that most people would drive if you HAD to do your own showings or move-in prep and local management proves unreliable.