Other than that your question is very general and you may want to be more specific so you can get better answers.How much you should spend for a home sounds like how much you should spend on a primary residence and that would be a personal answer for each person, as it will depend on your budget.If you're talking about investment properties then that will depend on your investment criteria and required returns, criteria, etc.

Friends always expect friends to be more lenient than a business person , as in running late with the rent, having to use the rent money to repair the car etc.

(Background: I'm a buy and hold guy, not a lender..so this was my first "exposure")The deal: Person "A" is moving here to work in Factory "B".

I think a lot of people come into the industry ill-prepared and fail at it and there is this persona of how horrible it is to own real estate. 

They may not all the person a coach/mentor but...  

Person A was in contract at 290K and was selling it to me at 315K, Person B was also trying to pitch it to me at 339K!!!)

First, the title record will show that Luke M. bought the property, and then transferred it, for no consideration, to Luke M. as trustee of the Secret Prosperity Trust.  

A natural person, a corporation through its officers, a partnership through its partners or a limited liability company through its members or managers that deals in selling, exchanging, purchasing, renting, leasing, managing or pledging the person's or entity's own property, including cemetery property and membership camping contracts, and that does not receive special compensation for a sales transaction or does not receive special compensation or other consideration including property management fees or consulting fees for any property management services performed, if the majority of an officer's, partner's, member's or manager's activities do not involve the acts of a real estate broker, 17. 

If that doesn't work, then maybe you could hire that person as a consultant and pay them a consulting fee that isn't tied to the property purchase.

My plan is to purchase some properties during the October auction and I will be analyzing several deals in person as well as finalizing my Detroit team.