A first-timer or unknown player wouldn't have been awarded the deal, they would have simply been outbid and then posted on BP that you can't find deals with this type of conservative underwriting! 

@Michael Woodward  I have not done C H since 06 or so.. but I did volume like Brian did here in PDX.. its uber competitive in certain markets IE as @David W. states there will be a very few who dominate and buy the majority of the sales.. they will even bid up property to make no money if they know it will knock out a newbie.

I see this Joe Calloway in the news, in the paper, and at the ACRE meetings sometimes and hes definitely energetic / obviously a big player (owns something like 400 houses).

I will admit I am quite conservative when I do mine so I may be a bit higher than others but the numbers I ran versus what you state here are quite far apart.

Crowdfunding makes real estate easily accessible, however, in regard to institutional real estate investments, the advice of an expert who works in the industry every day, knows all the players and their track records, and performs due diligence on each offering is a great benefit to you and comes to you at no cost.I live in Silicon Valley, and I'm an investment advisor who specializes in real estate.

I have listened to all of the BP podcasts and from a few other players in this space.  

Maybe you become a more minor player in the deal.  

Secondly, hedge funds are minor players in this market.

There is a learning curve to everything, hopefully others can touch on that as well.Another thought too, SS, due to the players involved, seems to require a level of sophistication of those doing such deals, a newbie might have a problem relating to the bank SS depatment.

You can though find 30k homes in little towns scattered throughout the US... challenges there will be minimum wage renters and no hope of type of appreciation.. which even in the major metro areas there is little appreciation to speak of simply because were your going to buy is dominated by rentals and investors only pay by return on investment.. to get appreciation you would need major moves in rent rates and that just has not happened .. rents have stayed pretty stagnate in most of those areas and are not predicted to go up.. you go up above the current rent rates.. and folks are going to buy homes at least your premium tenants.. you will always in those markets have your lifelong tenant