It's just easier to give in to the urges to buy a Lexus and not another Toyota, to do most of your food shopping at somewhere other than Aldi, and of course, there are the children's expenses.Creating an environment of artificial scarcity through budgeting to get you extra money becomes more and more difficult.

Be more intelligent, introspective than that. 

He seems like an intelligent guy, so the notion that a rent to own contract is too complicated for him and has too many moving parts is unfounded.

I believe the home prices in Philly are artificially inflated right now because of said competition. 

Not to offend anyone's intelligence, but for those of you with iDevices that are behind the curve:1.

About the property, it's a home that has been converted to 8 units in a desirable area of Miami Beach, FL -- it neighbors a few other multi-family buildings as well as million dollar homes -- golf course and private island nearby -- when I say it landed in my lap I mean it belongs to a close friend of my family who does not want to list it and needs cash -- yes, there is still a small amount on the loan and the property has about 40% equity (I need to verify that number though) -- properties in the area range in value from $850K to $2.5M, although there are outliers -- from what I've been learning, my next step is to get it under contract -- what information should I ask for in order to do this intelligently?

I am 25 years old with 2 years in the workforce as a fraud analyst; BA in Intelligence studies.

The competition is capitalized, experienced, and intelligent.  

My impression is that he's an adaptive operator who moves with stealth techniques, gathers intelligence on the situation of the mission, then resolves the matter with overwhelming tactical assets and firepower to complete the mission.

I have only just begun, but have read and plan to reread the intelligent investor.