(As I navigate my service business, I've realized that there are more lucrative avenues available.

That’s gold in this business!

I have even seen it in selling businesses. 

Major in business (with a real estate focus), start learning through books, podcasts, and investor meetups, and work on building credit and saving money while in school.

The construction project in question would be in West Philly, if that's helpful.

@Aaron B.So cool that you're actively responding to constructive feedback here!

@Fiona HumphreyJust make sure the property cashflows if the owner of the business dies and you're forced to rent to a normal everyday tenant.

This means taking days off of work to handle business, dealing with the subs and any deficiencies they may have, spending time dealing with the city, for both permits and inspections.Having GC doing everything won't entirely eliminate your time cost, but it can mitigate it to an extreme degree.My take is that if you are confident that you can be as fast as the GC in handling everything and there is no negative impact to your other business then by all means do it.

I want enough money coming in so the business can sustain itself when issues occur with maintenance or vacancy.If you wanted to do this with only 20% down ($46,000), which is all you need for a conventional loan, here is how the calculations change.Total mortgage + escrow $1,493.33 per month with cashflow reduced to $306.67 per month.I prefer to overestimate purchase price, interest rates, and homeowners’ insurance to be conservative.

My initial thought is that you are buying a business.