- if I will fail, he is going to eat me with my bones.

Now, it's a matter of dog eat dog.

I use most of the positive cash flow to eat, pay my bills, pay my mortgage, go camping, etc.

The down payment on 400-500K will eat up all savings and leave nothing for reserves to cover the unknown once we get in.

The biggest obstacles to getting started for me are 1) my job, which eats up a large portion of my time, and 2) my inexperience: the moment never feels quite right to dive into something so unfamiliar to me.

If the 20K for repairs is for the mobile home it's going to eat up your cash flow again.What specifically are you trying to accomplish?

Worst case is maybe I have to eat 2 or 3 months.

I have worked some comps and it appears it could rent for $1200-1300 comfortably, but my main concern is that it has a $267 HOA attached to it that would eat directly from my profit.

Fun new restaurants opening or the same old run down Chinese food store on the corner that you wouldn't eat from if your life depended on it?

May I suggest the following:I am also a general contractor, and if I under estimate the job, i eat it to protect my reputation, but never by 25%, yikes, he probably did not get estimates from his subs.