We have a prospectus prepared, and are anticipating a 5% secured yield for a short term (~1 month) hard money loan.

To the extent where you can look at a listing and pics for about 30 seconds and tell if worth further pursuing.Create your own advantage.................. is when you are prepared and seeing  an opportunity. 

For example I have a phone script; a negotiations script; a checklist to prepare for my appointment to view the house; a checklist to estimate rehab costs that I bring with me to my appointments; and comparable analysis sheet to share with the owner.

I’m certainly preparing myself for cases in which I will need to settle for something not as good as a 4-plex.

Anyways, my search for a place started last month but my preparation for this moment started about two years ago.

The academic life was good but it did not prepare me adequately for the real life grind of 80-100 hour weeks slaving away at top-tier banks. 

real estate investing and being an entrepreneur has been a life long dream of mine since as long as I can remember and this time, and with support from my wife and the motivation to give my son and daughter a better life for being there for them, I am doing everything I possibly can to embrace my 2 years I have left and just read books about business and real estate investing in rental properties.advice will be greatly appreciated since this is a very exciting moment for me and the more I prepare for 2020, the more knowledgeable I will be.

*Before you ask / wonder, yes, it's almost July, but I filed an extension and the check was just delivered today.I'm not yet active in REI, but I'm sure learning as much as I can -- in large part thanks to y'all on this forum -- so that I'm at least somewhat prepared for that first opportunity.My initial thought was to completely pay off my wife's 6.5% adjustable student loan.

You can use some of the public web sites like Recolorado.com and refin.com to hone in on the "affordable" areas.5) You probably won't need an attorney as title companies and real estate agents do all the document preparation in Colorado.

Live as cheaply as possible by preparing most of your meals instead of eating out.