It was definitely an eye opener especially because the pictures online showed a completely different picture of the state of the units.

I'm a newbie to real estate investing, so little words are very much appreciated :)Big picture if it helps: I'm exploring an all in one so I can plop extra savings into it until I'm ready to purchase additional properties and then can pull the money from the all in one for a downpayment elsewhere and then will continue to throw money into the all in one from my main job as I save for additional downpayments.

All the way to smaller things like if it has a drive way or not even though you provided in person videos and pictures of the property for their assessment (never mind the actual listing for it or what shows in their own system).

So definitely shop around and don't just take one persons word for the full picture of what is out there for you. 

I think it's easy for people to get caught up in the beauty and adventure of it all, without seeing the big picture.

Property management is an art not a science and requires someone with experience and intuition that knows how to evaluate the total picture, not just look at a credit score.

I could show you the pictures of the second house I bought here in San Antonio where the walls were torn from foundation issues.

I don’t know the rest of your financial picture but if you are a realtor and have $1 mil cash to put into real estate and no other assets I would diversify a bit into other investments.

I will ultimately spend $35,000-$40,000 more on finance charges when looking at the total picture (not paying the $50,000+ pre-payment penalty) but was able to complete the transaction with $320,000 less equity.

Tile is the obvious choice for wet rooms because it is totally water proof.But the big picture ....if you're going to sell in 5 yrs and remodel then, I wouldn't do anything now.