@Timothy Riley 1st let me say I'm not an accountant or CPA or lawyer, I just play the part on Tv.  

Brandon, I think you have the play the numbers game here.

Good news for those who play the lottery, apparently eventually we all win.For me, I can say, this has been eye opening.  

Naturally I want to write deals every minute of the day but I take into play the human emotion aspect.

I don't play the lottery.

The best way to mitigate wasted time is to play the game -- don't offer to cure the defects, offer a reduction in price in exchange for release of the inspection contingency.

Real estate is unique, so is each transaction.Many factors come into play, the scope of the transaction, the price and assumptions of risk, personal and financial considerations, knowledge of the parties, how negotiations are accomplished, any misleading information relied upon, any laws violated, is it a deal that a prudent person would engage in??????

I'll play the contrarian here.Sound diversification helps manage returns in all economic climates and across different asset classes.You can leverage your money more with real estate.

To ensure that this is a "safer" play the numbers I've used throughout I feel are conservative.Small Back Story: I bought my current house in 2009 in Madison, WI- as you can imagine I got a pretty good deal and today I have about 40k in equity (using comps in my neighborhood as well as a comparison created for me by a friend who's a real estate agent).

It will be interesting to see if the bigger sources of capital try and play the buy it for $18K all-in on the same $30K property game, esp in areas that could go up a lot beacause they are near better ones which has alreayd happened in some areas in Indy, PA etc.I would also point out that you focused on the rent but the rent is not the income whcih is much more important and the income is ok esp. if self managing but I don't know many people who think its amazing in absolute dollar terms.