I definitely see your point with your roof replacement example.Also in my 5 years the unit has averaged being vacant 1 month per year.Short term: I'm at 11years active duty, and hope to retire from the USAF so I can pursue becoming a sky diving instructor around the world.Long term: I want to have enough rental properties to fund a charity.  

One thing I learned from skydiving is if you want to be great at something you go where the greatest people are. looking forward to connecting with likeminded people.

I’m a skydiving instructor that is trying to get started in real estate.

If you were selling flowers or skydiving jumps you'd want cash up front.  

:)Anyway, I am not affiliated with them or being paid to post this—just sharing it because it’s a great tool to search around for RE portfolios for sale, REI courses for sale, and even skydiving equipment for sale around the country (if you are into that sort of thing)

Long-time hobby: Skydiving (16 years now) and New hobby: tugging an RV around the country with my toddler. 

Not handouts, but intelligent, collaborative deals that empower them to move forward in life-creating a scholarship fund to help kids get to college-funding a local civic center, cancer research institute, Walk for Hunger, or whatever tickles your fancy-tithing to your churchLife has been good to me, too, and I certainly spent a lot of time pursuing skydiving and such.

I also started skydiving during that time which is my second passion to real estate.

For example, I'm a skydiver. 

If you are going skydiving, do you buy a parachute off the sale rack, or are you more concerned with the one that's the most reliable?