This is generally a huge red flag and means that the contractor is not able to sustain his expenses and keep a positive cash flow.

I make darn sure that have the flexibility baked into my plan so that I can take as long as it takes to buy a deal that makes sense and moves me toward my long-term goal of building a sustainable, massive, passive real estate portfolio, one property, and one year at a time.After that next purchase, it will be back to working hard at my career and other professional pursuits, and combinging my professional earned income with my passive income from other real estate investments to buy the next, larger property 12-18 months later. 

Once you close your first deal, start thinking about sustainability, process improvement, scalability, and I think our software would help you with those.

I think this is a sustainable way to do things.

If you could go back to being 18, having only $500, what would you do to put yourself on the path to sustainable success?

You're going to run out of low down payment options eventually, assuming your family can't sustain a nomadic lifestyle indefinitely, no reason not to start saving up and planning for that now.

Assess yourself (ie. have no money), but have time, connections to folks w/money, some talent that you can contribute or some passion that resonates w/you that will keep you reading, connecting w/others in that niche to become strong in that area.  

I cant find much info on the future plan for the city as far as what sustainable growth the city has to keep the city alive...

The economy, while being enough to sustain our business, doesn't seem to be great for the housing market.

It can only help when the property is truly self-sustaining...reserves and all.