When you get close to your first purchase.

You can always tell when you're starting to get near the ideal first purchase property because generally your wife, husband, or friend will tell you on your first drive by. Are you nuts, it's awful. I'd never live here in a thousand years, or, Honey, they're looking at us, can we just keep driving by? It's to dirty, it's the wrong color. It's very important in pursuing your goals that you always keep your eye on the prize. Your prize here is to become a successful investor and income property operator. Nothing else matters once you get started. You are 100 percent determined. To emphasize the point, I'll print you a rhyme I learned in my grammar school years ago. As you travel through life's journeys, whatever is your goal Keep your eyes upon the doughnut and not upon the hole. I don't mean to imply that your first rental property has to be a hole. I'm saying that the best deals for you come from motivated sellers who don't know how to manage properly. The property often becomes an ugly eyesore and the owner becomes a serious seller.