If they hit their numbers they would be leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table by financing with equity instead of debt.

I'm not saying they shouldn't, I just can't afford to leave that money on the table if I'm not making more than that somewhere else. 

This leaves a lot of money on the table and causes great frustration for landlords.

Each area has a table owners can use to calculate the deductions for utilities they do NOT want to include (or can't - like MFR with only one water meter).

You got a lot of great advice, but you came here and didn't set the table.

Chicago is off the table.

I feel like I need to have something to bring to table to also help mentor.

You could find a lender that can go up to 80% LTV, thus even if there is this amount of closing costs, you still are ending up not bringing any money to the table, and essentially financing the fees. 

However, with the market booming and prices high, I felt it was too risky to put all my chips on the table for a single property.

Who is contributing and covering what and translate to big $ at the closing table.