The owners are arrogant con artists.

There shouldn't be a real need to often get on the phone with the tenants so requiring this (i you are) may be hurting your ability to rent your place through FF.

So, I DON'T trust my ability to determine someone's character based on a few minute casual conversation and I DO trust my ability to manage even difficult tenants. 

This gives our developments the ability to scale as we are very knowledgeable about our build process, materials and costs.

On paper the cheap houses look great, but the reality is they are harder to manage, have higher turn over and cost a lot more time and money.Buying before you retire is a good idea because once you retire, your ability to borrow money is going to decrease as you don't have a regular income from a job.As you want to fix houses up, why not buy a house that needs a bit of work, live in it while doing the renos and then move when you sell it. 

I currently don’t have the financial ability to invest additional funds into it.

If you’re confident in your ability to find undervalued properties, using the equity in your homes can provide the leverage you need.

Your credit at risk and might affect your ability to buy a home in the future. 

Other types of sellers that are making deals easier to get done are those with assumable debt available, and sellers with the ability to seller finance there properties.

Each individual needs to assess their own ability to handle costs over that time frame when cash flow may dry up.