This is going to keep your bid honest, rather than lazier and keep your cash position stronger. 4) The only time you spend in this, is finding & closing on the quality assets and playing devil's advocates for repair/rehab/fixing costs.

There is still a risk: You do not have the right outprice and lose money, your deal goes south due to unfound things when you bought it, then the rehab phase brings them up, and you spend more, and the market changes, which is something that can happen on a moment's notice.

I'll share first: I plan on spending the first bit of the year saving for my next deal--I'm looking for a SFH somewhere in the midwest to long-term rent.

Stop hanging out with your deadbeat buddies who spend all day drinking, talking sports, and otherwise wasting away.

If you are new to investing we also need to spend some time somewhere, maybe 1hr to talk about your expectations and the realities of the market and see if there is correlation.Interestingly enough I think with the NAR lawsuit some expected commissions to go down. 

It feels like the first week of the month, I spend chasing down payments to make sure all of my loans are paid, even though I have everything on autopay. 

Quote from @Marc Shin: Hello - is it worth spending money on boardgames within an STR? 

In a text book case you'd buy a property for half of its ARV (after repair value) and then spend 25% of ARV on rehab and generate 25% equity.

. - All they've got to learn is to save some of their income to pay their bills on time and they could then afford to buy a home.Instead, they spend every penny they make on things they don't really need and then blame everyone else.Take a look at a Class C or D tenant's bank statement to see the frivolous things they spend their money on and you'll better understand our society's biggest problem.

Spending $1,000 to start the process can be worthwhile if you’re clear on the steps needed to reach that point.As for renovations, the approach really depends on your goals and the scale of the work.