All good insights.  

2 hours of absolutely brilliant, insightful and valuable conversation between Josh, Brandon and Tim.

I figured it's probably pretty boring and basic stuff but I just want to make sure I'm armed with as much information as possible going into my first deal so I really appreciate your help and insight! 

That sounds strange, but you have nothing holding you back from venturing out of your security...because you have lost that security blanket that was your job.I would venture to say, that most of the success stories in history, started out where you are right now...me included.So, with nothing holding you back, and with plenty of time on your hands (time will always be your greatest asset...since you can never get it back), if you want to get into REI, you need to do the following:1 - Learn,2 - Learn some more,3 - Keep learning.Places to learn (before you say "that costs money"), that don't cost any money are:1 - Online education sites that have free articles written by experts in their fields.2 - Free e-books, that you can get online.3 - Joining your local REIC's to both learn and network.4 - ...and never stop learning...even when you become a success at this (and you will)Also, three very critical actions you MUST follow to be a success:1 - Always think possitive.2 - Train yourself to think of future "obstacles" as temporary problems...and you are the problem solver. 

seems like it is pretty clear I should just be less aggressive, I appreciate everyone's insight!   

can you please refer me to a local expert?

can you please refer me to a local expert?

A couple thoughts of mine.1) opportunity to get advice from experts in any and every area related to REI all in one place.2) I am grateful that I was able to reconnect to an old friend, who I found 'coincidentally' on BP

Secondly, I wanted to share an insight I had this morning while running and thinking about real estate success.A friend of mine told me he would be running the 10k (about 6 miles) Turkey Trot and invited me to run it with him.  

@Christopher J Lemmon Thanks so much for the insight Chris!