Anytime someone tries to show me an after tax return value, they end up making very optimistic assumptions.

Mike:I like your optimistic view about a 'self-correcting' outcome and a public revolution leading us back to sanity.

Vasia, While I like the enthusiasm and the fact you are starting out much better off than many, I personally think you are being overly optimistic about how much you can save over 1-2 years. 72k after taxes, especially in California, is not a ton of money that would make it almost impossible to save 30k a year, especially as a young guy of 22 or 23.

BP Vets,Is a thirty day window too optimistic an expectation to close my first deal?

I am after all an optimist.

Rent: $900Expenses: $450 (50% rule, this may be optimistic wince you have an HOA.

Being optimistic, I started the purchase using with VA loan with no money down and the purchase price only  being $40k less my approval amount so I purchased on the high end.

Also without seeing the inside I would say $1,000 total repair budget is a bit optimistic.

I'm awaiting my mtg broker's as we speak . the proforma from the LA had figures at 22% with some pretty optimistic numbers.

For now I'm optimistically crossing my fingers it's a meter-read error.