But I am slowly recovering and I just walked about 40 feet with an aid.  

Not much in my area so I'm trying to branch out to the city of Charlotte which is the closest big city to me.

The next closest you would get would be Home Possible (conventional) at 5% down for a multifamily with a marginally better effective rate assuming LPMI and excellent credit.

My plan is simply to aid in my own investments, and eventually to serve as a buyer's agent for other investors.

But, the aid is lower now and likely will go way down due to budget cuts.

(btw: the repossession rates on these is sky rocketing).As we said after Jonestown, "Don't drink the cool-aid"

The closest example of this one I have for you is J.

Maybe get a handyman to throw tar on to Band-Aid the leaks. 

However as the weather started to warm up last spring and we began making friends up here I truly learned the truth in the saying that you are the average of your five closest friends, I began to lose focus and spending money and that seems to be what everyone up here does, works in the oilfield and blows their paycheck by the end of the weekend.

I think getting started earlier rather than later is always smart because it's like pulling off the band-aid.