I have an initial goal of attaining $3,000 per month ($36k annually) in income derived from real estate investments in order to supplement my full-time job.To kickstart this post, I thought I'd ask some questions to the community that I've been pondering over the course of my real estate education:First, market timing: I have the sense that the Dallas market has been on the upswing for the past several years, accelerating even more rapidly since the announcement of several major companies (including Toyota) moving to Plano.  

Yes, as long as you include an "escape" clause in your purchase agreement.

We were quoted $130K for every single thing, including extras that we wanted like a sump pump, the mold remediation for both houses (2 came on this property) was $20K alone, @Mark Gallagher.

Especially the days when you discover that big capex like a roof being blow off (happened 2 years ago), some tweakers climbed up on the roof and gutted the A/C (did two of those in the last 12 months), an evap cooler leaked for so long that the drywall on the ceiling of the kids bedroom caved in (last year), the hot water heater blew a hose and a major leak went unnoticed for 10 hours flooding the hall, kitchen and living room (dealing with that now), the tenant smelled gas outside, the gas company came and shut off the gas because the underground pipe is corroded AND also discovered that the water heater is not venting properly so it got red tagged (just dealt with that last month) or the time the tenant "invited" a homeless guy over, he moved in, then called his other homeless buddy up and he parked his crappy RV with his entire family living in it in the driveway.

The Chicago laws heavily favor the tenants  and are so bad, that many investors including myself refuse to buy there.I wish you luck, Don Colagrossi 

Hi Amiris,Thanks for your comment.We launched like 2 weeks ago with a half A$$ed website and ZERO marketing and already recruited 7 agents.I have had VC's throwing money at me like crazy but we are looking at bootstrapping for now until we prove the concept and maybe raise money on our terms.Looking at including all of these things in our online platform:Live support, training and “How To” video’s, various marketing templates, a CRM database management software, a DIY social media account set up, a DIY personal website set up, create own Dotloop signature tool, online continual education courses and a full blown real estate library of videos, tips, webinars, courses, etc..I'm super excited about this mate and believe it to be the new revolution of real estate brokerages Thanks again

That includes some areas of the  Sacramento market which along with certain areas of Stockton and Merced that  offer these needles in the haystack.

From what I've learned after some reading and from listening to many episodes of the Bigger Pockets podcast, some of the keys to success in my current field - including an eye for location and rehab potential, the creation of "added value" and "competitive advantage" and, more than anything, the ability to build relationships - are important to real estate investing and I'm excited to employ them in this new arena.I'm thrilled to find BP and look forward to getting to know some of you!

There are few ways around this, including a job transfer of more than 50 or 100 miles (I can't remember exactly).You say you want to live in one side, it doesn't sound like you have any sneaky plans, but I wanted to share that it is mortgage fraud, which is a felony, if you say you're going to owner occupy but then don't.

Your total expenses should be around 50% of the gross rent not included debt service.