Go to real estate investor meetups and spend time talking with other investors than salivating at scaling without the proper foundation.

Soft currency, hard currency, it’s equivalents and commodities (natural resources)From there, For local economy cash flow (spending money where you live), you’ll probably get into real estate and local business cash flow activities and it’s deviations 

If the deal is good and the *ongoing* cash-flow numbers make sense, then it doesn't matter what you spend to get it ready.

Make sure that you spend time upfront learning how to use it correctly.

My advice would be not to be pound foolish and penny wise, spend the money now and sleep safer. 

Also, how to prove "Spend more than 100 hours on the activity and no one other individual spends more time than you do"? 

Unfortunately I spend a lot of my time right now finding different carriers for clients just because their current company is purposely shrinking their business. 

I talked to an investor agent and she asked how much I'm looking to spend on first home (with rehab).

I have about 250 questions I ask a sponsor and spend probably 10 hours easily researching them.

That’s how much you have to spend on 1-3 replacement properties (to keep it simple)2) How much equity do you have in the property?