Not sure of your goals with real estate investing, but I have a 14-month old (who's currently destroying pots and pans from the sound of things) and if you can house hack, I would highly recommend it.

Oh and also we replaced 4 windows and put in some pot lights.  

If its MLS I see no escaping paying whoever else has their hand in the pot (listing, your broker etc..)

Looking back, every job I left (voluntarily) was due to being overworked, under-appreciated, and essentially not being able to utilize my skill set appropriately or to it's fullest. 

If it ever gots to pot consistently, then fix and sell. 

Continue pressing forward because there is a rainbow on the other side with a fat pot of gold aka your money.

So it makes sense when @Jay Hinrichs and @Brian Burke are building from the ground up, they are taking a accepted and informed risk for a relatively high return which seems a lot better pot odds then investing in the current crop of these low margin value-adds in which you are taking an unknown risk masquerading as low-risk for an acknowledged low return.

I view it as a distinct pot of money that shouldn't be unplugged, and loans against a 401k are bad news, especially if one gets fired, laid off, etc. 

Money Down" was extremely helpful, especially in stirring the creativity pot and helping me figure out ways to reach out to my current network to put some money together.

I set up my reserves as follows10% to Vacancy10% management even though I self manage now, later I will not.10% repairs 10% to Capital expenditures I will pot this money until I hit 10k reserves, this will cover most any expense that hits.My buying criteria is that after my reserves and Piti, I need 100 cash flow per door.Hope this helps.