Combine that with the fact that people are more mobile than ever, and the idea of wishing or needing to move to another city for work but owning an underwater home, and I think the idea of owning is as likely to make a person feel trapped as it is to make them feel the pride of ownership that the previous generation had.Regarding the attitudes of 20-somethings, yeah, I agree, with caveats.

there has got to be some way for the math to tell me how much I should spend on this house and avoid the over improvement trap... 

New investors often fall into the trap of trying to break out a dozen different line items and make estimates for each of them.

We have also started doing bed bug traps in the houses before a tenant moves in.

I'd replace the offending item's trap first.

I don't really want to get caught in the trap of building this huge buyers list with low quality leads.

Neither I, cleaning lady, subcontractors ever noticed any insects during the entire process! 

If the program or course will accelerate your learning and get you closer to the goals you seek, do your careful due diligence to ensure there is alignment and get started.Pretty obvious here and I fell into this trap so want to share.I know when I first started and after I spent money I had, for some reason, a level of expectation that the mentor/coach/guru will do the work for me. 

@Duke Marquiss sadly a few years ago i didn't think so smartly and fell into the trap. while I didn't spend some crazy 30k amount it was well more than what the information was really worth.

Termite inspection: Your basic home inspection does not include a WDIR (wood destroying insects report), so pay the extra $75-$100 to get a termite inspection.