We're in one of those now, and we're pressing the HOA to increase fees.

I got into real estate as an agent, fresh off the press at a nice ripe age of 22, and all of my friends immediately came to me and said what............"

Just came across this and found this link:https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/phoenix/press-re...Not sure if this is the same Kelly but it is worth noting for others on BP. 

Your just hard pressed to find anyone to acknowledge or admit it.we had one ( one of my clients here in PDX) were he was doing a pop top and full gut underneath house fell in on itself.. no chance to recoup.. 80k loss.. gave it back to the first lender. who was loaning illegally in Oregon @Nghi Le probably knows the company.and in Tyler's home town I personally foreclosed on over 200 SFR's that out of state folks bought prior to 08  could not make a go of it and lost it all... rentals are not immune.

It seems like you have more pressing financial obligations.  

Anyone have any advice for pressing past this fear- I'm concerned we may get in the home and it need some huge unforeseen repair pushing our budget up by say $50K (worst case scenario). 

I think you will be hard pressed to find a lender these days that will go into 3rd position.

For the money you'd be hard pressed to find a better bang for your buck. 

Little Rock does not get much press as other cities on BP, but it is hard to argue that LR is not a premium place to invest as the article points out double digit rent increases, low unemployment, strong job growth and low vacancy.  

But in Washington DC, you'd be hard pressed to find a 1% rule investment.