@Ryan Gillette absolutely nailed it for you, @Colin Wood.

After thinking about it for a few years I've finally put my fears aside and started taking actionable steps to build my own real estate investment business in beautiful Wilmington, NC.

@Wayne Brooksyou just nailed it.

@Matt Motil - You hit the nail on the head.

Finally got it painted.

Here are the final stats (not sure if this will copy and paste correctly): Purchase Info Square Feet (2 Units) 2,492 Purchase Price $165,000 Initial Cash Invested $49,727 Income Analysis Monthly Annual Net Operating Income $1,032/mo $12,387/annually Cash Flow $414/mo  $4,973/annually Financial Metrics Cap Rate (Purchase Price) 7.5% Cash on Cash Return (Year 1) 10.0% Internal Rate of Return (Year 20) 16.9% On the land lording side, I was forced into a crash course when I had to kick out one of the tenants due to non-payment of rent.

The inspector might be ignorant, but we gave him that chance.You can be sick of dealing with inspectors and buyers or even realtors, but you still have the final say in your transaction.

My coin is to finish venting via this thread and make it be the finale.

And having helped hundreds of other investors do the same, I believe I've nailed down a successful system.  

I have watched my customers buy, hold, flip real estate for 16 years and decided I needed to finally get in on another stream of income.