You'll be competing on price with owner occupants who are not running the arithmetic like an investor, so you'll often end up overpaying and losing out on any potential cashflow.I'm also 25, and it's great to see other young guys getting started and building wealth. 

It’s concerning as I have a lot of money tied up in this.

They must be very low odds because insurance companies are in the business of making money, not paying out maximums.

I have a question and would really appreciate your input.I’ve done a couple of fix-and-flip projects in the past using hard money lenders, but I’ve noticed that their fees and interest rates significantly cut into my profits.

I put my money where my mouth is on this.We lend our own hard-earned money to local real estate investors.

If you just want to build your cash reserves then flipping is the way but just be careful - that too takes a lot of work and research to make sure you don’t lose money.  

That's before you pay any debt service.To answer your question: No, it's generally not a good idea to lose a bunch of money every month.

Money?

This would be my first real estate investment, making the decision even more critical.I understand that backing out would mean losing the $2,000 earnest deposit.

I was on BP Money Episode 325:  https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/money-325For some reason the signatures in the Forum seem to assign random podcast numbers to past guests, I’ve noticed this with other people as well.