Hi Basit,It's probably been a combination of outbid, or out contingencied, and a bit of financing at the levels we want. 

its most unfortunate that you had to go through this deception and theft from someone who is considered a professional in this business. we definitely appreciate you putting the warning out about this character. as hard as it is to find a reliable experienced contractor nowadays its even harder to find one that's not a crook and a liar and that's truly pathetic.   

At the beginning, I had to use my own money and credit lines and a HELOC.  

I would like to purchase another property so I looked into a heloc and a cash out refinance and it looks like I would qualify for about 75000 max which would be enough to put a down payment on another property and rehab it, but I still haven’t paid myself back from the original property rehab.

I thought he was super smart and a straight shooter. 

The site hasn't changed, literally not at all.The people, my friends here, people I know, help change the perspective by doing what they have done for years, just posting and responding with words of wisdom and a 20,000 foot view.

Choosing between a single-family home and a duplex is a classic real estate investor dilemma.

The best thing to get started is building your team - a lender and a RE agent who know the Duluth market!

@Michael ReilmanI installed the Aquasource Henshaw from Lowes in all 20 units I recently rehabbed and they've been great so far, and as an added bonus they're ADA height which is awesome for bad knees!

@Ilir Livadhi I think you are referring to property wholessalers telling you how much the rehab will be - and as you see, their numbers are often not based on reality.