I have 14 years in the business though and have spent thousands of hours over the years honing my craft.

Study and learn your craft so you can perform when you get a new client.

I bought my 1929 craft bungalow two years ago and have since added 300 sq.

There is something I call an "Income Trap".It explains the false sense of security a 6-figure salary gives the average upper middle class American family.The scam is the same.It's a carefully crafted web of lies:1/Live the American Dream from day zero (2 financed cars, big suburban house+mortgage,annual vacation, private school for 2 kids)2/Max out your 401K contributions (employer matched or otherwise)3/Save for 6-month emergency fund.4/Relax and watch Game Of Thrones.THE END.Then I read Thomas Piketty's super-awesome book: "Capital".It became quite clear there's a conspiracy to keep most Americans firmly in that trap.I am convinced that trap is carefully orchestrated and perpetuated by Wall Street.The lie in the scam above is that it restricts people's thinking within a steel box of their own income.There is no way to abundance inside that box.Congrats for making the decision to step out of the box.Your life will never be the same again.

There are advantages and disadvantages ... it is really just a matter of understanding what those are and crafting an investment and exit strategy(ies) to maximize the advantages and hedge against the downside disadvantages ... that in a nutshell is what investing is really all about IMO ... the nuts and bolts of how you go about doing that is the tricky part ... 

Food place, this way they can shop then eat. craft store like Michaels or even Harmons or some drug store. i Have seen all these combinations next to dollar store and they seem to do well, they have been in the same strip mall for years. i know of one strip mall that has a Harmons, Michaels and a burger joint with a Dollar General and 5 below in it, all have been there for years. but have seen a lot of strip malls like that.

The young lady did not have a high-income producing job but was helping to support their finances, and the gentleman was a contract-worker for a mid to high end furniture crafting business.

This was crafted only after like a snake in the grass he found out I wanted a double closing in lieu of having contractors giving quotes to renovate.

But for $0 in free Costco cardboard, $30 in arts/crafts supplies, printer ink, an an afternoon of driving around with a staple gun, maybe that exact same level of results is totally a slam dunk.But, really, that's all speculation.If it's working for you, who cares what the haters say.

That is not to say it still can't work out great for you, just that you need to be aware of both the upside and the downside and carefully craft and execute your strategy to maximize the upside and hedge your downside ... and if you can't or don't know how to do that, then you need to be honest with yourself and have the discipline to NOT buy anything until/unless you can.