Me and my wife are literally eating only rice, beans, frozen fruit from Costco, apples and bananas and saving every single penny we can to be ready.I am very motivated and I hope to meet real people do want I want to achieve and I can help them out while learning.

Because everyone teaches and stresses about making money in real estate, but not keeping track of their money.We all talk about individuals making millions and billions like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and they enjoy the tax savings.

@Tony Mbuthia-  1) the  pricing of a  loan  wont be  detemined  until you have a  purchase contract so the pricing you  obtain from any lender   before  having a  property  is something you should  be able to   do  some  comparison  shopping   2)   if  contacting  multiple  lenders  to  get   pricing to  compare  -  use the  same  scenario - call them  on the  same  day  and  ask  your  questions and  ask for  quotes  ...do this  so you can compare  apples to  apples   and  dont compare a  quote  from last week  from one lender  to another  lenders   quote from today   3)   be aware soem  lenders  will  provide  super low quotes  and  also wont  include all the   3rd party fees    ( title /  appraisal /  escrow  etc )  when providing   quotes   so that their quotes  look  to be  superior  4) let me know if you would like a  sacramento Loan  officer  referral 

I wasn't sure if the STR location I chose was a good one and wanted the flexibility of IO payments. 

(there are exceptions... like toyota, apple, windows..)But for smaller entities like us... you brand you.

When getting bids, make sure you are comparing apples to apples.

@Brandon Turner Turner coined the term "House Hacking" to describe using your personal residence as an investment property.Read this: http://www.biggerpockets.com/real-estate-investing Listen to the Bigger Pockets Podcast with @Joshua Dorkin and Brandon turner.I don't have an Apple device so I stream the episodes on my Android phone using the Stitcher app.

You will be at a huge disadvantage if you compare a Texas property numbers to a NJ property numbers because they won't be apples to apples.I understand that coming from CA almost anywhere in the country seems like a better market but remember that cheap doesn't always mean good deal!

That would give you an apples to apples comparison in your own backyard.

Since you dont have a contract you are going off of trust and I would suggest not giving the entire spreadsheet to any investors you find because it only takes one bad apple to burn all your leads and rip you off if one of them comes through.