You have probably heard that old RE adage a million times, "Don't wait to buy, buy and wait."

Look between the cracks.

You have cheap money available to you now, look at the odd properties. A one bathroom home which could easily be made into a two bath or three bath home and rented to young adult friends.

Or odd ball properties. A friend had a chance to buy a two car garage. Nothing else on the property...I bother the friend about this to this day.....that garage was big enough to make into an apartment....that garage is down the street from Yale University. That 30,000 ship sailed.

We bought one house our first year. (2010)

We bought five houses our second year. (2011)

We bought two in 2012, 0 in 2013, 3 in 2014, 1 in 2015, 6 in 2016, 6 in 2017, and 1 in 2018.

Some years, it's okay to not buy anything. Save your resources (time/energy/money), just kind of hunker down with what you have and make sure your roofs and major systems are in good shape and there aren't any ugly surprises waiting to pounce on your budget.

Other years, people will throw houses at you. You will turn down perfectly fine houses because your plate is too full to properly manage them. And that's okay, too.

If an opportunity presents itself-- go for it! But don't try and force an opportunity out of something that doesn't exist.

That said, sometimes "normal" does change. That's the hard part, telling the difference between "new normal" and "a bubble that will pop".

For example, even in my small/poor/rural, town, when we first moved here in 2006, land was $500-$750/acre. Four years later, you couldn't touch anything under 200 acres for less than $2k/acre. We thought we'd let the prices drop back down "to normal"... but eight years later, things are still very solidly at $2k/acre, minimum, and is unlikely to ever go back down to where it was.

Housing prices, on the other hand, have been solidly connected to oil & gas. When oil & gas prices are in the basement, you can get a humble little starter home, cosmetically dated but otherwise move-in ready, for about $25-$40k, and you probably have five or six homes to choose from because they're just parked on the market. When oil is over $100/barrel, those same sorts of houses sell for $80-$100k, and you're lucky to find one if you can.

I have been buying investment properties since 2010 and am faced with the same problem. I have asked the same question to the local investors who have been buying property for several decades. Their response is that there are always deals out there.

I have looked at the GIS for the properties they own and it looks like they were buying with the "1%" guideline. Once the market busted, they were able to get "2%". So, it looks like going forward we will not be getting the returns we have been getting over the past few years. The real estate market cycles every few years. But, I have never seen the market cycle as low as it did in 2009. So, I do not expect to see the 2009 prices again.

Johnny B,

Money is made in ALL markets, up and down.

I see a lot of young people trying to analyze "the market". They want Google to give them metrics and advice, trying to pick the next up and coming area, as if they were building a multi-million dollar apt complex in one shot...over-analyzing to justify their fear of action.

Me? If it's a deal today, I buy it. Sure some wre not as good as others but in the end *I* own the property and can do something with it. If not I drive by it and say "If only".

Be wise, know the numbers on that property, don't over extend your credit, and make each purchase profitable on it's own merit as is right now.

A beauty of individual homes is diversification of my investments. Some are better than others but each are not dependent on the others.

Also, I look for motivated sellers who are not trying to maximize their sale. They just want out or a bank owed who just want to dump it.

Here's a fable I use daily: While traveling by horseback thru the night an inner voice told the man that when he crossed the creek to stop and pick up some stones from the creekbed. In the morning he would be both happy and sad.

That night when he crossed the creek he stopped in the dark, reached down, grabbed a handful of stones, put them in his pocket and rode on.

At daylight he pulled the stones from his pocket and saw they were valuable gems - he was happy!

Then his happiness turned sorrow as he realized - "I have TWO hands!"

Get what you can in each market cycle and keep moving forward. RE is so big you won't be grabbing ALL the deals, just get what you can and deal with those.

You can find deals in every market, the only thing that changes is how you find them.

A few years ago you could find a few decent deals on the MLS now no way, even if one does show up it gets overbid. Same with auctions those used to be good to, now every HGTV flipper with a contractor and a cashed out 401k is overpaying for anything just to do a deal.

You have to look for off market deals these days just like 10 years ago.