The rule we hold ourselves to: do not buy anything that is not a deal. If you aren't winning on the way in, you don't buy it. The itch to just get in the game is real, but forcing a mediocre purchase to scratch it is how new investors end up trapped. Investing is a different discipline from buying a home to live in. You're generally buying for cash flow or for appreciation, rarely both at once, so decide which one this property is for before you run any numbers. Then let the numbers settle it: add up the payment, taxes, insurance, and honest repair reserves, and the deal either pencils or it doesn't. Avoid what investor Michael Zuber calls alligator properties, the ones that eat your income every month. When everything is financed at elevated rates, real cash flow is a stretch unless you're buying from a distressed seller or a distressed property, so the win has to come from the buy, not from hoping the market bails you out. The practical fix for finding deals is a wide buy box. Limit yourself to one small town or one property type and the search gets brutal. Open up your geography and your criteria and the discounts start appearing. So: stay patient, hunt hard, and move decisively the moment a genuine deal shows up.