.- Despite the goal of not leaving cash in deals, you'll have a hard time responsibly closing on deals if you don't have cash in the bank (closing costs, inspections during due diligence, paying contractors after you close, dealing with unforeseen problems).

Lastly, while I definitely agree with your points on having more capital up front to handle various costs in regards to the HML and unforeseen circumstances, I disagree with the fact that you shouldn’t learn on the go (especially being young and taking on only one project).

Well, due to some unforeseen events, we've been living on our cash flow for a few years now and have no W2 income.

The profit margin should provide a reasonable return on investment and account for unforeseen circumstances that may affect the project's profitability.

For those who love information.12 unit Building490k Purchase priceLoan 392K3 year ARM @ 4.75% = $2,235 / month5 year ARM @ 5.25% = $2,349 / monthThe 3 year obviously has an advantage of $115 saved a month that I could use to help bulk of savings for any unforeseen event. 

I've seen many a commercial loan go sideways due to genuinely unforeseen circumstances. 

Your parent's medical bills may be an unforeseen hurdle, but the credit card debt was deliberate.

In our experience we look at less deals because we have good relationships with brokers and they only send us deals that fit our parameters.We only visit properties that actually make sense from a numbers perspectiveOn this deal we came in with 20% downOn our syndication in November we put down 30% which did affect our returns.We also raised An additional $200,000 for any unforeseen cap ex.

If you agreed to a contract as-is with no contingencies, then you ran the risk of something unforeseen coming up, and your choices are to continue at the seller's new price or walk away and lose your earnest money.

Most of my purchases (300+) have been properties that have been on the market for some time, so I only buy at a price to cover any unforeseen repairs