Even still, it could be said that I've still lost money due to my time on the tools instead of prospecting as a real estate agent (the cost of lost opportunity).If you can truly do 80%-90% of the work yourself (at acceptable quality levels) and you aren't sacrificing your time where you can get better returns for your efforts, then yes, it can work even up here in Canada.

I decided to take a lower CoCr for stable, high quality tenants and have zero regrets.

The deal is risky unless you know the market well, have experience executing this strategy, and have accounted for the quality of the asset and tenant. 

Also due to price increases you can probably cut a better deal on an existing home and probably get better quality too.Normally you'll probably need a couple of years of income to get a loan. 

It's a relationship game more than anything, so if you're building strong relationships with them and providing a consistent product, you'll be golden.

You can probably find some around DFW in some of the outer cities for around $250,000, so 1031 the ones with the most equity into more properties with chances for more appreciation.One thing I would suggest is not to buy NEW from the big production builders. 

the company I went with was 12k and performed high quality work.

Try to screen for a higher quality tenant next time.

I know Hunter is busy, but it seems like something more needs to be in place for people that have just onboarded, though maybe I'm just not being patient enough as I'm sure they onboarded a surge of people in conjunction with the really excellent production.  

Having the contractor relationship in place to move quickly and provide a high quality renovation at a reasonable price.