It's not a deductible expense, but the OP is in dire financial straits so I think the juice is worth the squeeze in this case. 

love your post and eye for design. once the creative juices flow i find them difficult to subdue. to "relax", but sometimes this is a good thing. it sounds like you have a great plan... newbie here too. just wished to introduce myself. formerly from washington, dc, i'm just getting started in the staging arena in california and i'm looking to make some connections as well. thanks and sincerely, sydney

@Susie LoweHi Susie, you have probably seen that Lakeland, FL is a popular investment city these days, some of the reasons for this is that Polk County/Lakeland is ideally located centrally to Orlando and Tampa, we have many warehouses strategically located throughout Polk County, to include warehouses for Amazon, IKEA, RoomsToGo, PepsiCo and Publix which make this area strategic for distribution throughout Florida, not to mention Publix is headquartered in Lakeland, and we also have a large presence for Coca Cola bottling and Juices in Auburndale, FL which is about 10-20 min from Lakeland.Lakeland is also home to the yearly SUN 'n FUN held in April, which is Florida's largest annual convention, which spans over 6 days on 2200 acres, and it has been recorded to have had a $64 Million direct and indirect economic impact on the I-4 corridor (From Tampa to Orlando). https://www.flysnf.org/about/I have been investing since 2002, and my investments are mainly in Lakeland, Bartow, Auburndale and Winter Haven, I also like Lake Wales and Haines City, there is good population growth, and high demand for workers in these areas, of course keep in mind we are in a pretty descent economy right now, whatever you look at, make sure the numbers make sense, and if you purchase something, leave enough room for an economic downturn, I see many outside investors purchasing at higher than normal prices, because the prices seem cheap compared to other markets close to Lakeland, but this can become a trap if the market shifts in a negative direction.I would be glad to help you with your search

Drew Bell I just finished the pre-licensure course in NY and am taking the state exam next week.

The deal is the juice. 

Add that to your 5 and 10 and look how much you're leaving on the table.I realize a flip or BRRRR requires more resources, time and risk than wholesaling but the juice is worth the squeeze.

Commercial property is nice you can get your creative juices flowing in your brain to add cashflow

In essence, your $5K set aside is "lost day zero cash-flow" to juice "near-term cash-flow".

would something like that cause the entire thing go belly up?

then in that case private lender dot com or any other on line so called aggregator is a total waste of time and money.. private lenders don't make loans to folks they meet on the internet unless of course they don't have any risk tolerance.. not saying your risky but private means belly to belly known to you ..