Feels like gambling to me.

It's just a "boring" midwestern tech city with extremely strong housing demand due to our own local tech boom and the unusually low inventory for this part of the county...And previously where the entire midwest was mostly about cashflow (eg James Wise type places) now Columbus is changing to an appreciation market, even moreso than the rest of the country.Another however: betting on continued appreciation can be just speculative gambling, especially assuming we will have 21% ..

It’s a gamble that could pay off if I can remidate the mold under budget.

I have heard of people getting sucked into drugs or gambling and destroying a successful business.

If I knew it was only 4 months I'd take the gamble, but at this point I am considering selling as leases expire for my SFHs. 

I am a recent college graduate from UNC Charlotte and now that I have a degree in organizational management I would love to immerse myself more into the world of real estate investing.

You will learn a ton, meet people that you can do deals with (i.e. buyers), form your "power" team (attorney's, Realtors, Title company, private lenders, etc), and most importantly immerse yourself in the RE world, build your social capital, be inspired, and rewire your brain for success in real estate. 3.

Do you need $94.5 to pay a gambling debt to the Mafia? 

It's a gamble really - my term for it is the CGT - the Consumer Gambling Threshold - That is in fact the force that sets the appraisal fee, not the appraiser.

When you exit a market for a duration (in your case 3 years), you are taking a gamble that market does not get far worse for purchases.