From a morale standpoint, seeing the balance creep up in my account every month just makes me feel good and reminds me that this is building towards a healthy early retirement.

The moral of the story is - be patient, stick with the course you're on, and good things will happen.

It seems that you are trying to take the moral high ground with the type of investing that you do where you come in buying a SS, give the opportunity for the homeowner to stay in the home and thus save the day.

Things like ethics and morals should trump it.

The question you need to ask yourself if you're morally struggling with this is, "How can you help others if you don't have the means to help yourself?"

Not sure if there's a separate moral issue, but if it's purely a financial decision, I'd rerun the numbers excluding the $1700.  

Quote from @Mario Morales: @Doug Smith that was an awesome example, are there any calculators out there or is it just a simple DTI calculator?

It is just sad that some people can't keep it to themselves and feel the need to show they are somehow "morally correct" on a forum of all places.

I find it intriguing, but morally questionable. 

Moral of the story: respect your agent and work with him/her as a partner and not as an employee and you will both reap the rewards of real estate.