As someone who presumably wants the job of President one day, reinforcing the image defined by McCain's campaign after the last election (not good) and large-scale self-deprecation (using the word "rogue" to describe oneself) doesn't seem like the way to go.

What Mitch described above perfectly illustrates the need to protect oneself.

I need a realtor who is able to distinguish good investments while also steering me from bad areas.

The header and sub header and are in big clear copy and are easy to distinguish from one another. 

Additionally, we hoped to use an FHA loan on a property in California once we were done paying for my school and thought that having a rental property would knock out that option.We did discuss it though- I'm trying to make sure that I'm not throwing artificial barriers in my own path since I know that's an easy thing to do to distract oneself from actually making difficult decisions and taking concrete action.

In my case I need to distinguish between the cost of constructing the building to white-box specification and the cost of building out from white box to completed store.I found these links but am not sure how reliable they are.

Sorry, I should have distinguished the property type.

I DO get it: calling oneself a "wholesaler" implies some sort of value under market to the buyer.

No need to force oneself to be miserable and paranoid.

All that to say is that investing is a process that takes time to educate oneself and prepare financially/mentally.