I've taken over a year's worth of college classes, and it honestly feels extremely suffocating.

Most of the time when trees die after construction it is because contractors park heavy equipment around the root base which compacts the soil and suffocates the tree.  

Nitrous Oxide can kill you be means of suffocation if the concentration is high enough.  

I followed the dream of leaving my suffocating corporate 9-5 to work for myself 5-9p

We love our families very much but just feel a little suffocated by them sometimes.

access to market and MLS. access to marketing. exposure to deals I wouldn't have done on my own. networking.But having said that, I was suffocating in my ex-company. they wanted to "turn me into a Realtor", " tied my hand bc they were uncomfortable with Investor risks and issues". 

If discrimminatiom is so overpowering and suffocating, how did this come about?

KC certainly could get hit harder than other areas and take longer to recover if/when the next bust happens (and it will happen)... but again if I'm being conservative it might be easier to buy/hold a property there for that time at half the cost of a Denver home than buying a Denver home and suffocating under the load here.I do think the midwest is going to do better over the next 40 years for a few reasons, but again it's rolling the dice.I'm not sure exactly what you mean by the "Goldilocks" phase.  

The ROI on buying a SFH around here just doesn't make sense to me--on larger MFH, you might be able to find something, but I don't have _that_ much to invest.So, I'm looking out of state for my first investment to purchase in cash and see a small start to additional monthly cash flow, rather than letting the equity in my primary residence sit and do nothing for me.I've spent the last couple months listening to BP podcasts, reading a couple books, picking the brain of a realtor friend, talking to a mortgage broker, discussing investment accounting practices with my CPA (which, once again, confirmed to me how absolutely stupid and suffocating California's tax code is), and talked to a couple turnkey providers.I'm getting close to feeling comfortable in purchasing my first investment.

Second, if the points and interest payment are not doable/suffocating, then the borrower doesn't have enough cash reserves, and the HML shouldn't be risking their money anyway.