Mentoring is hard on the coach too.As a coach, I can not make you be positive in the face of adversity, deal with rejection daily, be available to talk to sellers 24 - 7, etc.You need a heart to heart with your spouse as far as working your J O B and REI in tandem, along with cleaning the house and kid duty.You need to crawl before you walk and fail before you succeed.What are you willing to give up to succeed?  

=)I (heart) Marketing!

I'm an entrepreneur at heart, could not stomach my first professional job out of college.

Whether you are or can be a good landlord really depends on your commitment as well as your people skills.We charge a full month's rent for leasing only, and 1/2 month's rent when we are doing full service property management.Property management is not for the light-hearted. 

Are your best interests at heart? 

I think it is good to be conservative but I'm finding I'm at more like 10% vacancy however that is in the heart of SOMA which may be different.

My borrowing power is currently maxed out due to three construction loans I have with them but they told me if I found an income-producing property and I came up with the down payment they would cash out refinance for me in a heart beat.  

I really don't take stock in those online reviews.Trust me the first one I got my heart sank and I thought the world was going to end.

Many cold-hearted, self-serving, money-grudging, wanna-be landlords don’t understand human nature.

I thought I was going to have a heart attack :-)The best thing I can tell you is to make sure you have “some†out in your contracts (i.e. subject to house inspections) or make the damages as low as possible (i.e. $100 deposits) Now with bank owned properties you need to put up $500 at a min.I typically purchased 3 - 4 houses per month (1-2 REO’s and 1-2 lease option cooperative assignments).