The owner purchased the building in 1972 is 80+ years old and lives within a 20 minute drive, he lives in a moderate not wealthy neighborhood.

Not only are you out the money, but you are also learnIng real estate matters from someone who believes that their personal best chance at wealth is to peddle seminars.

Maybe one day I will be as wealthy as y'all. 

Louis has a spectrum of real estate that range from exceptionally wealthy to war zones. my end is to know the differences.

However, the saying is true; "Flipping can make you rich, holding will make you wealthy."

I'm interested in flipping too, but I've always preferred the long term hold strategy to building equity, and ultimately retirement wealth. I

I read and listen to different sources that of course talk about syndication for  150 +, 200 + and get how one individual unless your exceedingly wealthy can't do those deals alone. 

Arlington is already pretty wealthy and I know there's deals everywhere you just need to find them but how can you add value to that would it be a better strategy to invest in the surrounding markets like Stafford or Fredericksburg?

The Cash Flow is ridiculous.Over time, you get to understand that Cash Flow is something that only stays the same if you invested in something that is designed to do so like a Coupon Bond.Because I calculate the FUTURE Cash Flows out 10 years, I fully understand the true return of the Investments and how much cash flow I will achieve.The other thing to take into consideration is the Mortgage Balance reduction.If your investment is at break even but your Mortgage is a fixed rate, then one day, when that Mortgage goes away, your Cash Flow increases tremendously.When you take into account a 30 year projection of your Investment Cash Flows, you realize just how wealthy you can get by buying for FUTURE Cash Flow as opposed to Cash Flow NOW.It's really not RIGHT to pretend that the Cash flow you receive at the purchase is going to be the same throughout the holding period of the investment.

Bad stuff happens to good people, but some of them just want to "stick it to the wealthy landlord".