Hi Andrew,

It's not feasible for someone to answer in a blog post all those questions fully on how to do this business, what houses, etc.  Best thing is to read all you can, read past post on here, get books, go to the library or bookstore and read what you can to learn the basics of real estate investing.  What type of houses to buy depends on what type investing you are trying to do.  

I have a link on my profile page to my free podcast, go listen to them, it will help.

As far as something holding you back ... you are absolutely right, there is something holding you back.  This is very common among new investors.  What it is varies.  

It could be fear.  Fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of not succeeding - getting your hopes up and risking being let down.  Fear can be crippling, even the strongest person can be held back by fear.  You are starting something very new, something out of the ordinary.  It can be exciting, but also scary.

It could be self-worth.  Many people struggle with the implanted (false) beliefs that we are not worthy, that they are no good, that they don't deserve success.  

It could be incongruence.  Incongruence is when we have conflicting beliefs about something.  We can want something, but at the same time, feel it is in some way bad.  We want to eat the chocolate cake, but we feel bad if we do because it will be bad for us and blow our diet.  People get that around money too.  We want to be rich, but we may have had it implanted into us all our lives that rich people are bad, they are selfish.  So, if we grow up believing that, and despising rich people - and now we want to be one of those rich people - it's challenging to become that which we despise.  It will cause conflict and hold us back.

Never underestimate the power of your subconscious mind.  Even things from long ago in the past, still affects us.  We trick ourselves into believing that something happened long ago and we have forgotten about it, so it can't be holding us back now.  But the subconscious mind never forgets.  Suppressed memories don't just go away, they shape who we are now, until we effectively deal with the issues and resolve them.

Read ... T. Harv Eckers "Secrets of the Millionaire Mind".  He does a good job of explaining this.

Hope this helps, and remember to check out my podcast.  They will help explain some of the different ways to invest so you can sort that out. 

Todd