Like Fox Mulder, "I want to believe" :-)I used to chuckle at people here in Maryland who'd say something about how horrible Detroit is when I mentioned I used to live out that way.

I will reiterate What Brad said, Zillow is a horrible place to get your comps and even the appraisal districts website is usually not accurate.

Cash-on-Cash return gets horribly skewed when you're coming to the table with so little money, anyways.Smaller properties operate on thinner margins so you probably won't make much more than $200-300/unit (after accounting for all expenses (and I mean all!)).

I am a true believer that you can't cut your way to prosperity.As far as the car goes, most people finance cars and it is a horrible idea.  

..or is this just a horrible idea?

But that is a horrible way to value a property.

Don't trust Z, they can be horrible at values.

OC is pretty much horrible for new investors like myself, even on a doc's salary.  

This realization came through a horrible accident which turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

(Sounds like a very typical way of starting things off haha), but honestly I want to hear more horrible or bad experiences buyers/seller had come across with recent wholesalers.