I would not spell out your next steps, let them ponder on it. 

But what I'm pondering is what about you poor guys in the middle who can take a calculated risk and even if the s**t hits the fan you can ride it out long enough to break even or get a profit.

These are the questions that I sit and ponder as I type.

I have a fair amount of cash saved up for a down payment which I have pondered about using to buy an investment property with my father who has very little retirement savings/plans.

Hello guys and girls of bp I'm coming to you today to ask everyone that has done house flipping and investing too tell me there first mistakes they made which could of been prevented due to more planning?

Congrats on pulling the trigger girl , I have my opinions on this subject , but a congrats is in order on moving forward , hopefully it all works out !!!

Put your big girl pants on Basically what have you already lost in rents for average of lets say 6 years. lets take $70.00 a month for 72 months that's $5040. x 2= $10080.00Raise the rent to just under market,, forget the % amount you either run a business or a charity. 

Look for the story about the girl/girls that got left in this neighborhood by a party bus and ended up killed about 10 years ago. 

I am gonna be pondering these things over this holiday as part of my NY planning.

Just pondering ... if you buy the internet service then re-sell it to your tenants (by including in rent perhaps) or even as a free service, do you then become an internet service provider?