We were drawn to this program because as an engineer with little interest or time to swing a hammer.

It will only take a $10 drop in oil prices to hammer us back down.

@Melanie KentI started out by swinging a hammer on my dads rentals at 14.

Can you swing a hammer or is that not where your skills are best utilized. 

Sadly, no, he isn't.And notice you didn't express any regret at all that you couldn't show up at my current reno and pick up a hammer.

The other type, Operates with one Tool .. because he is a hammer, and see every deal as a nail.. and every opportunity that doesn't look like a nail  will be discarded and bashed out of ignorance and of course he will exalt his NAIL and diminish the screws....

I had heard everyone tell me "work ON your business, not IN your business" and "you can only make $20/hr swinging a hammer, you can make potentially thousands developing your real estate skills."

I have no empirical evidence or data to back up this idea, just gut instinct, but I think one of the first places you will see the supply homes spike is the popular cities for OOS, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Cleveland, ect, particularly C class homes, once the coastal owners have to shell out cash to pay the bills all while having seen their 401ks and RSU's get hammered.

You could set up facilities with a local community bank  usually at a 4 to 1  so for every Million in Cash you had bank gave you a 4 million dollar line you could tag.. you made the loan with your million and back filled with the 4 million keeping 20% of your own money in each deal. that's what we did.3. you raised a ppm and promised a fix return.. those guys got killed when loans went bad.We got hammered but our banks let us work out of those loans. 

Hopefully you've screened well and built a solid business relationship with your tenants where this wouldn't be the case.And again, if you've allowed a shady tenant in out of necessity or neglect, and are now complaining about their ability to pay rent...again, the hammer falls on you.