Working a 60 hour professional job while building a real estate portfolio was exhausting.

HMLs are about the last resort, the title lenders of RE, high interest, high points, short term collateral based commercial lending, certainly some are better than others, but I'd exhaust banks, credit unions, brokers with private money before looking at an established HML dealing on a national scale or even regionally.

And then I was just exhausted.  

What if two years from now they go up to the attic and notice an exhaust fan that terminated in the attic and not vented outside, or they wanted to add a receptacle somewhere and hired an electrician, and the electrician told them they can't and because the junction box has too many conductors in it and it exceeds the box fill capacity, so they have to pay to open the wall for a bigger, deeper box or piggy back another box...do they send you the bill too?

After that, your $1000 will probably be exhausted.  

Just not sure I'd be a buyer right now, unless my deal can withstand a few tougher years.

I've yet to find one who had any depth of knowledge on building codes beyond the extremely obvious, could spot building violations beyond something extremely glaringly obvious and none of them have x-ray vision.Jetted tubs with no access to pumps, lack of required dedicated electrical circuits, missing outlets, dangerous electrical issues such as lighting in wet areas, wire nutted connections  together and buried in a wall, miss-wired electrical panels, extension cords used for wiring buried in walls, bathroom exhaust fans that aren't vented anywhere... that's just a tiny list in one small category that are witnessed over and over again in flips that had home inspectors involved in the sale. 

To me, it's more about not taking such high risks and it's more about being able to withstand any horrible disaster that took place in 2008 and 2009, that bankrupted so many people.   

There will be a bit of time & money exhausted on my part after he leaves painting, cleaning, screening tenants, etc.

If taxes and/or insurance are higher than what is typical (sounds like your problem) or if you have a high maintenance (like in my case) property then you will exceed 50%.In my case I plan to work up the rents accordingly and hope the tenants can withstand the increases.Are your rents as high as you can get them?