I found an agent that 'Gets it' and I do everything I can, not to burn him out.

Here's mine...Start -> Build mailing list of potential leads  -> while waiting for phone to ring, build buyers list -> While waiting for phone to ring with a trully motivated seller, continue building mailing list and keep sending weekly for at least 5 weeks -> Go to a local REIA meeting and network -> Go look @ all potential houses, going through the motions is good practice and makes you kinda feel like your in the game ->Have contracts, for when the big day finally arrives ->Continue to read and educate yourself, while waited for phone to ring ->Learn your market, hook up with a realtor that will give you comps on potential deals (more than one is better, don't want to burn anybody out so early in the game) ->Finally time to negotiate your first deal - good thing you did all that work before, you actually should feel like you kinda know what your doing. 

I know this is a lot of hypotheticals and many people would call me over-cautious, but it seems like many people underestimate the risks of leverage and get burned in RE when the market turns and they're in too deep.  

So that's somewhat of a buffer zone, I guess.I had a friend who runs a very successful business (very business saavy, but not really into real estate) preach to me that if you overleverage and don't own things outright, you'll eventually get burned.

So sorry you were burned.

What I questioned, was how/why you arrived at yours.The order of how to design a REI Plan starts by reverse engineering from your financial Goals. 

As an engineer put the data away and pick up the phone and build real relationships.

I would have a company specializing in foundation repair come look at this AND I'd have a structural engineer look at it as well. 

It seems a lot of people have been burned by a bad tenant or don't fully understand how voucher tenants are placed. 

Here's an example budget for a 1500 SF home with unfinished basement (not included):Land: $24,000Soft Costs (Architect, Engineering, permits, property taxes, insurance, loan interest)  $50,000Hard Construction: 1,500 * $95 + 750 * $65 (basement) = $192,000Sale Price: $330,000Transaction Costs: $30,000Net Profit: $58,000 (just under $40 per SF)