For me, its not the swinging a hammer, working long hours after work, and sleeping on a mattress on dusty plywood that was going to hold me back.

Leverage to grow, pay off when you have so much income you have no use for it, your mattress is full and the only place left to put it is in real estate.

@Mark S.its the same as mattress money, lol.

You can use Air Mattresses for pictures with Beds, this always help show spacing. 

Furnish all the bedrooms (Craigslist $100-300 per bed with preowned mattress, buy $10-20 mattress cover, $10 lamp, $50 dresser or nightstand) and provide the kitchens with basic supplies (Walmart $20 4 piece set, $10 silverware, maybe some pots or not, can buy 1 multipiece set and split it between your units)Install Schlage Camelot electronic Door Code locks on the door ($100 Amazon-no lockouts) or a lockbox ($25) with backup keysPost on Nextdoor and Craigslist looking for a “house Mom” / Cleaner who will clean units between guests for $20/turnover.

The reason you get a mortgage is either because you haven't got enough money, or you have better things to do with the money, like buying more properties, or, if you sleep better knowing you have liquid cash reserves, stuffing it in your mattress (not really, in your mattress, but you know what I mean).What if, instead of buying for cash and gaining 10K equity when the house appreciates from 100K to 110K, you buy four houses with mortgages and you gain 40K equity when each appreciates from 100K to 110K.Of course, the inverse, is true. 

Two urine soaked mattresses, a destroyed couch, hopelessly soiled rugs and towels, broken plates, furniture, etc, etc.Between the damage and the lost income we’re out about $6k, not enough to file an insurance claim and make it worth the possible rate increase after the deductible.

I wanted to best utilize that money so I gutted the house to the studs while living without a kitchen or an upstairs bathroom for a while, sleeping on nothing but a mattress on a dusty floor.

There are mattresses and some canned goods in the property, so it seems like they have made themselves comfortable.

But the host got around this by putting beds in a sun room, using blow up mattresses, etc.