Point noted about not being able to underwrite without seeing things in person.

My wife and I have overhauled our personal budget to reflect the 'pay yourself first' approach (allocate in order: income comes in -> invest -> donate -> fixed expenses -> variable expenses -> fun $$).We are looking to see what experienced people generally recommend for a holding tank for that 'invest' allocation while we target our first real estate deal.What financial vehicles have you guys used that works well for this?

However, you can get loans that are based on the performance of the rental and not your personal income and debt.

They are all under my personal name.

I got a deal on labor as I know the contractor personally and helped out a bit with the project.

We will shop for used appliances where we can when we need one… or pick up used cabinets if we can, or search eBay for something smaller,  but going to the extreme of personally shipping something big in internationally for one-off renovation needs seems like a stretch of reasonable.Just like you mention, the number of unknowns would not seem to be worth it to me.Just my 2 cents.Randy  

Are you referring to personal losses or other people had losses?

What RichDad does not tell you is that it takes a driven personality to build a portfolio and if you have that type of personality you will not enjoy a retired state.

We recently relocated to Phoenix last summer and I'm starting to look for recommendations for local credit unions here in Phoenix which are trustworthy, low rates, personal touch, easy/simple to work with, etc. 

I heard that if you move the personal mortgages to an LLC they could get called and we would want to avoid that3.