I was in a time crunch to keep my second campaign 4 weeks after my first and didn't want to wait learn more about DM companies.

When our loan consultant came back to us and said I got a pre-approval for almost all of them, I got excited and started crunching cashflow numbers for each property, as per our overlord Brandon Turner. 

Now here's where I'm stuck -- trying to crunch numbers with the assumption that the house may need *some* work (maybe $5k-$10k) and if he wants cash, factoring in an HML - with the idea that I may use it as an STR or a light fix and flip?   

If you are spending more time analyzing deals in a spreadsheet than looking at properties and watching how fast everything is selling and at what price, you are stuck in video game investor mode where you are crunching numbers and then seeing what the lowest (highest) price you can offer based on your data.

I run more of a development company now, but we still work very few hours a day, only a few days a week, and invest more of my time enjoying my days than crunching numbers.  

For example, if you love to crunch numbers, but hate to deal with people - then trying to buy wholesale deals and negotiating directly with owners, might be a difficult rout for you.

Also I haven't found a service that I couldn't Sub out vs Team member.I do think it's important to find those necessary folks with those necessary skills you'll need (@Michael Quarles noted) now versus at crunch time.Finally, always have a backup!

I'm crunching the numbers and figure I need to do about 10K mailings per month to meet my income goals.

@John Tobin As a VT resident who has been following this in Burlington and throughout the state, personally, yes I think it will continue to come up The ski towns in southern VT are suffering a significant housing crunch for locals in the area as well as with ski mountain staff with no great solution in sight.

So we started a dialogue with the seller and found out he is in a time crunch and needs to get cash so he can have a down payment for another house that he is now finished building.