Ultimately real estate is an imperfect market and knowing how to capitalize on that is key to generating a profit. 

It is all simple math, but takes some time and effort to add up (especially your first time), and it still needs some margin and will be imperfect, but much better than these crummy rules of thumb trying to be a one-size-fits-all solution.

My understanding is that many people consider the Treasury yield curve to be an, imperfect, indicator of future economic recession/expansion.

Many times, simply focusing on serving others can help to get the magnifying glass off yourself and your imperfections/failures. 

Take imperfect action and fail forward.

I purchased some late night infomercial real estate courses (like Carlton Sheets,) and then went out there and made it happen.As Harry Truman stated, "Imperfect action is better than no action at all." :)

If you HAVE to get a tenant to cover your expenses, that's when you will look past anomalies and settle for imperfect tenants, and those tenants are always from Hades. 

Different problems cost different amounts and not all imperfect basements are actually a problem.

Because it’s troweled on, floor imperfections are smoothed out.

Now that I have that off my chest I am looking at the smaller imperfections of my portfolio.