I know several people who may or may not invest in future deals, depending on where their cash is, and my deal(s) are ... and where they line up on a calendar.There isn't a perfect science to it.  

The nature of adjusting returns for risk is more of an art than a science, but this is what makes me hesitant to proceed further with this deal.

I am an entrepreneur with a life science equipment sales business operated out of a home office for the past three years.

Scott Trench has this fictional story about the finances of his own experience (couldn't find his 1st person account, sorry but it's out there somewhere...or maybe they pulled it offline to get people to buy his book...)

It's not rocket science just use Heloc to pay off your mortgage.

This is definitely more of an art than a science.  2-3% is absolutely reasonable depending on the market.

But then again learning this stuff isn't rocket science.  

I know it is more art than science. 

This allowed me to get some hands-on experience, build up my credibility (showed that I can find good deals) and my confidence which, in turn, benefitted me when it came to time to raise private money.I know fund all my deals using a mix of hard money, private money and/or seller financing (seller carryback or sub-2).By the way, prior to learning about REI, I was teaching science labs and working on my doctorate degree at UH (which I happily abandoned), so no REI experience at all. :)Good luck!

Now I have always had an entrepreneurial mind, but I also had a fascination with mathematics and the sciences.