That is why finding some mentors to save you time & help you clarify what you want real estate to do for you & how you're going to execute your personal philosophy & strategy.

I am currently looking at the Houston, San Antonio, and Atlanta markets for my 3rd property.My reasoning is the Eggs in One Basket philosophy.

so i was talking to @Scott McMahan offline about this too (arm vs traditional). although it does protect you better in case anything happens, the arms eat up your monthly cash flow.I talked to Scott's guy (thank you) and he said he can do 5 yr balloon at 15 yr amortization. this means i'd have to pay $600/mo payment (double) and total payment would be around 900-1k with tax and all that stuff. my rents are between 1k-1.2k, so that would leave me with $100-300 cash flow if i am lucky. one roof job or a 2 month vacancy and i'd be underwater.yes, i build a bigger/larger equity quicker, but going back to Ric Edelman's philosophy, why do you want to put all your money in bricks and pay it off early?

Take the scenario with a higher IRR.I have no idea what is better with your investment philosophy but personally, I'd like to keep as much working capital as possible to close other deals.

But even the random required courses that I took in school like Philosophy, History, Writing, Spanish, etc., I believe they were helpful.

Have no idea why a philosophy major needs a #1.

I'm just trying to build a realistic philosophy to base my investing strategies around.

I own and run a tango dance studio in Buenos Aires, Argentina and we strive to achieve the essence of the philosophy that I read in the 9 core beliefs: adding value, supporting growth and learning, patience, prudence, etc...

If you use the next in line philosophy for your credit checks I don't think people will blink unless of course tenants don't usually have to pay for credit checks by you.

I think the philosophy should be to LOOK close to home first, not necessarily to INVEST close to home.