If you do want it bad enough you will educate yourself on every aspect of investing and not only reduce your risk but also reduce your fear.

@Andrey Y.I'm into 4plexs due to the cashflow aspect and easy conventional financing.

I would almost back into it this way before finding land as its possible the margins on all of the aspects aside from land will paint a picture of limited profit margins.

Am I just wasting my time discussing appraisal cost with potential lenders since there are obviously more important aspects of the loans to discuss?

The GA sales person course doesn't  really prepare you on all the different  aspects of transactions you will encounter.

To me, buy and hold is buying a property (in whatever condition) and renting it out (after doing whatever it takes to get it into condition to rent out).The BRRRR strategy has a financing (or re-financing) aspect but is the same concept. 

Experience is the only thing that removes fear IMO.I will say,  before my partner/husband, I had always thought about it, and knew it was smart, but feared the logistical part of it as I have no rehab/construction experience... aka paying contractors $$$$  (expenses getting out of control)... so when he came along, knowing he could do all the construction aspect, and I could figure out the financial side, it was a great match and here we are!     

I would be very interested to hear from long time investors who have weathered the storms either crashing-and-burning and coming out stronger or simply getting through the cycle bruised but not battered.Having searched for a topic and thread like this one, I don't think there is one quite exploring this aspect of real estate investing where we lay bare all our failures but it would be incredibly instructive to us newbies to learn from those who have gone before and come out the other side weary and with scars to show from the battle.Hope you will find int in yourself to share so those of us who are new can learn.

A great aspect of seller-financing is that closing costs in seller-financed properties can be a lot cheaper than that of a conventionally financed property.

Of course there is a non-financial aspect to this decision. - We stay invested for future appreciation on the new primary residence.