., my sewer line replacement that ate 50% of a years rent all at once.) 

They ended up taking less money than they had paid at the court house steps and ate all the rehab costs.Also a word of warning... if you try to pull something often it will be you that gets burned. 

That ate directly into my cash flow which required me to lower how much I could offer.

Starbucks and In-N-Out Burger ate up the rest.

My first purchase was a 5 plex and while I ate it in 2014 (major renovations, updates, and turnover) 9 months later I am living in a 1,000 sq foot house and the 4 plex is collecting $2400.

I just had a memphis investor join us yesterday after he sold several units he had there....he couldn't keep management or tenants and the repairs/vandalism ate him up.

This investor only had one exit strategy and when it wasn't working for him, he didn't know what to do so he just sat on the properties until all the hard money interest ate up all the profit on the deal and a good portion of my investment money.I learned how to keep the money from the investor separate and not commingled by having all the investors money either go directly to the title company or to the contractors.

From what I can tell it is not down range from a tee.

Ate at Green Truck Neighborhood Pub while in Savannah and saw some renovations going on nearby.

Over the course of a year my wife and I fixed it up, rented to friends, ate peanut butter and jelly, did everything we could.