When you sold the property as entitled am I correct in assuming that the permit was for the drawings you produced?

Money are not free: you are buying time, it worth every penny.Your Tenants pay the mortgage, interest in it, taxes, insurance and then some.....if you’d saved these money you borrowed, you’d wait 10-15 years to buy that income producing asset.Your primary residence is an exception, however, HELOC on it still let you put downpayment on these rentals.It’s wiser to not think how much banks make on your mortgage but rather understand how much you make off that asset

There is nothing wrong with debt as long as you can produce positive cash flow with it. 

If they can't produce a receipt then it wasn't done.

With that money I was able to get a bachelors degree which led me to getting a master’s degree (which I paid for) in social work which led me to opening up a private therapy practice that produces a comfortable living. 

@Evan Snyder it can work everywhere, but it does not produce the same returns everywhere, especially when it comes to cash flow

A number of years ago when I went to a new area I worked very hard producing leads and two investors helped me run some of the leads for 50% of the profit.

Seems like if IRR can produce wildly different returns it isn’t a good tool...

And if you do give them earnest money, I would advise that you put a contingency that it is refundable in the event that they can’t produce a clear title.

Is it a SFR that will produce one rental stream or a multi-family which will produce several?