It is not really apples to apples, but generally speaking the more money invested the further ahead you will be eventually in the future, just because your compounding base is higher, regardless of where the money comes from - ie, 4 300k properties are 1.2 million on property, which is double the 600k property.

I am based in Sacramento, California looking to start and pursue a career in real estate!

I built this budget template based on my research but am only seeing bad investment returns / don't really know what I'm doing and would appreciate any feedback you all have to offer.

All in all - owning a place to rent to other people is a business, and business decisions need to be made based on that cold hard facts and not on an emotional basis, unless someone wants to quickly go out of business.

They already have a track record (good or bad) with you, so you can decide based on payment history, inspections, etc.

If you use different sources it will be difficult to calibrate the different scores, but think of it as a percentage of the max available score.This particular score seems to be based on an applicant's credit history, including payment history, credit utilization, and credit availability. 

Hopefully, based on actual field measurements, past project data, and estimating software, your contractor can develop a detailed estimate that lays out the cost of labor and all materials for each phase of the project.

You just discriminated against them based on family status.It's good to have a heart-to-heart talk with them about what they can afford and see what they want to do.

I have one of my major partners based in the Smokies and we love seeing this!  

Since you're new to real estate (according to the title), you really don't have anything to base it on other than your own personal experiences staying elsewhere.