Hello, I am new to real estate investing and I have a tentative verbal deal on a pre-market lake property that I would eventually like to make my retirement home (10 years or so).

I have done this several times and is my primary method of providing rentals which if done correctly, actually does help people.

Your Core 4 Real Estate team will play a very important role in your success.As for other markets to check out, it really comes down to what you're aiming for. 

Property 3: Primary Fixer upper / home. 

You might want to listen to some of the BP podcasts on some of the other ways that real estate "pays" you, outside of cashflow.Keith Weinhold from Get Rich Education also has a good podcast and regularly discusses the 5 different ways that real estate pays you. 

Still working on timing my transition from stocks to real estate.

We have been learning about real estate investing since Aug 2015.

Quote from @Michael Dallas: Real wealth is built by holding onto property.

In my case, I have residential rentals in one LLC, commercial properties in another, self storage in a third, and my real estate company operates in a fourth.

Purchase price: $75,000 Sale price: $105,000 I purchased the property as my primary residence with a one bedroom above garage apartment.