I spent most of my life around the industry but never felt confident enough to take the plunge until I was staring at being retired in 15 years with only a modest 401k and whatever is left of social security.

He told me on the phone he makes about 40k per year, but for some reason he left the monthly income section blank on the application.  

I know @Michael Blank looking at places over there  Thanks!!

I have searched north, south, east, west and coming up blank.

So I had basically a blank layout of the house's exterior walls.

I would have slacked till FIRED 😁Ohhh late today 2hour lunches staring at the walls.. ..the normal YOU'RE FIRED stuff

I only play when it's big, and I never say things like "if I won the lottery [blank]."

Clearly hits home for a lot of us.I've just recently stared to invest out of state (Denver is just WAY too expensive even though I love living here) and have THE hardest time getting people to call me back or act quickly on anything.

You have to make deals that make sense to you first and foremost - if your numbers indicate that the purchase price plus repairs is going have too thin of a profit margin or even no profit at all... then you have to back away from it - regardless of any perceived "bad feelings"  because you are going to feel a lot worse when you're staring at your mortgage statement and you can't pay it because the property isn't producing the income it needs to.

I would definitely consider staring with the househack and increasing that $3k of monthly savings.