These were a great place to park the cash we were building up to purchase our first property, as their weren't many major price swings and you have a 5% cushion/hedge if you bought at the wrong time.  

Use this time to build up a cushion of extra cash cushion to be able cover the full mortgage payment on your place for three months.  

I understand what he means, but you have to have a bailout cushion first before you can be "that guy". 

And without a downpayment and buying it at full price, you have no equity cushion in case something goes wrong.

We'll have 20k in cash reserves when this boat sets sale so we do have a bit of cushion.

I should still have about a 10k-15k cushion in the bank come January after the duplex payments thus far and remodel costs.

And if I need the cash cushion bc of vacancy, market downturn, surprise repairs then I always have it.

That is not to say you should take advantage of their desperation, but you may need that extra protection if they, say, don't pay their final month's rent and you will likely have some repairs in the end too - that extra cushion can be very helpful.Finally, don't let your emotions get in the way.

I also make sure I can find something 10% under market so that if things turn, I have that cushion. 

I was figuring about 4-5% for the closing costs and about 5-6% for the agent, but I like the idea of building in that 1% cushion.