I’m also aware of the emotional side of dealmaking, how badly I want it all to work, but being mindful of forcing a situation I should walk away from.

Hey BP friends, I've been watching Austin's real estate for a while now and decided to dig into it deeper in NW corner of Austin and Round Rock/Cedar Park area.

Side note, the guy is an emotional roller coaster sometimes.

I would not use Zillow and Trulia as a main resource - but rather dig deeper as they are third party websites and despite being owned both by Zillow, Zillow can still be very OFF on valuations.2.

Once you've found a few areas that interest you, I'd drill down a little deeper, but you're off to a good startRobert Leonard

I think the biggest concern I have is that you are calculating your "cash flow" without factoring in ALL you expenses.Lets say you are "losing" $1000/month....but it would cost you $1200 to live somewhere else.... so you aren't really losing that full $1000/month....since you have tax benefits, equity, possible appreciation etc etc.......but do you have the cash to deal with that "loss" and be able to afford the expense that will come up..... the upkeep, repairs, rehabs, turnover etc etc.....other expenses WILL come up....not IF but WHEN....When you are accepting short term "loss", you are counting on a long term payoff, often via appreciation....plus you have to have deeper pockets to weather that loss for extended periods

Sometimes the best course of action is to do nothing, because doing something will only dig yourself deeper into trouble.

Both are jobs that take time and emotional energy.Beginning both at once, one you are trained in and one you're (learning on your own dime for better or worse) is a big bite.If I were you, I'd buy into a facility with others as Jay recommended, which will add to your net worth and be likely to benefit you long term, and in the mean time stack up liquid cash, as much as you can, and study this business.Or if you want, just go for it and move forward with ether multi-family or single family knowing it's not as time free or risk free as many make it seem.

I will have to work on separating business from the emotional aspect.

After reviewing the applications (and this is probably day 3 of holding the apartment for them because they said they wanted it and then it took another day and a half to turn in their application), she contacted me and said she wanted the rent prorated (I said I had no problem with that) but also that she wanted me to redraft the contracts because "[she] has an emotional support animal.