Sellers motivation shouldn't factor in what you can afford, thats a bonus if they will negotiate, but your numbers have to make sense to you and work out for multiple exit strategies (str, ltr, sell etc)Running the purchase numbers is pretty straightforward, use almost any online mortgage calculator, make sure you know taxes and insurance (taxes will go up a bit if it is currently owner occupied and you don't plan to live in it) Once you know your mortgage amount then start looking at other STR's in the same area and same size/amenities and see what they are getting per night and how many nights a month they are rented to calculate what you MAY be able to get.

Lets call that the :( side.2) And there is the happy side... passive income (syndications, passive partnerships ie medical/dentist offices) and passive losses (depreciation, bonus depreciation via cost segregations common in syndications).

The study identifies with forensic engineering detail the immediate Bonus Depreciation 5, 7 and 15-year personal property class lives qualifying portions of a building that are normally buried in 27.5 year residential or 39 year commercial categories.

Local you can leverage your local knowledge about areas gentrifying, or large zoning changes (midway district, city of San Diego ADU bonus program, etc), or large funded development projects (Chula Vista bat front, etc). 

Our biggest goal is build relationships in the Chicago real estate community, getting referral is just a nice bonus.

It’s 100% bonus depreciation in 2022, 80% in 2023, 60% in 2024, 40% in 2025, 20% in 2026 and completely phased out in 2027.

I'm quite sure you will be in a great place to start investing when you sign that attending cheque with an enormous sign-on bonus.  

@Jon Kim, I'm reading up on the bonus depreciation as we speak, but I'll refrain from giving any advice as I'm not a CPA. 

Bonus #2: if you send cards or do cold calling and use VA, have a script for people who are not looking to sell, but to buy more - those are also cash buyers often.

I would think in under an hour of study you could figure out what cards to apply for and get some nice signup bonuses.