@Nathan Meeker absolutely agree a good CPA is worth the $$, and was expecting to spend well over 1000 for such services (I spent 1500 last year only to catch a lot of my CPA's mistakes); just sent you a DM, thx

Don't ever spend your last dime on an investment!

My coach says to move by the speed of instruction, but I'm not sure if my own market of Sacramento, California is worth spending a lot of time and money in, especially for rental properties.

Spend some money on tools and get your hands dirty.

If you had $100,000 to spend on properties, you could buy 1 property for $100,000, or you could borrow and put 25% down on 4 - $100,000 properties.  

You have every right to ask if the policy has dog bite / dog breed exclusions and need to spend time (unfortunately) reading the policy exclusions.I will say that a certain insurance company that may or may not have a lizard as the mascot brokers out their renters and home policies with other companies and some of those companies have a dog breed exclusion and some of the companies they broker it to do not have a dog breed exclusion.

If you are ready to make a medium size investment, spend $5,000-20,000 per month on marketing; manage a business operation, and devote full time + to that business, you may have success in building that business to profitability.  

Find a day you can observe...you can ask the clerk when eviction day is....go spend 2-3 hours watching cases...you might be able to see 50. 

My friend would LOVE to get to the bottom of this before they spend their time on what yields a smaller harvest.What's more valuable Skills or Stripes?

Think about it, you could spend the next year or 2 living with your parents (which I think was absolutely a smart move, btw) and just saving money...not achieving either of your goals of owning or buying a home for your wife & family...AND, not to mention that if you do purchase your primary residence first you're going to increase your DTR & likely significantly reduce your cash on hand, which is likely going to set you back a few years on your real estate investment journey.