He’s obviously not a fan of leverage ever since he got burned years ago when his RE notes got called by the bank.

I have/had great relationships with my residents for the most part, but I got burned, expensively, several times.

All the damage the pets done wound up being moot anyway because the tenant themselves wound up burning the house down.... so I would say in my experience, the pets overall gave me the least amount of headaches.

What are the odds that the house is going to burn down, the insurance company sees there were students living there, and they don't pay? 

That will jump start you building wealth.In the meantime you could pursue wholesaling but most get burned out. 

(Or a bunch of money burning a hole in your pocket that I could borrow)

I'm going to do my best to be patient but with trends making prices go up and my savings losing money due to inflation, it's difficult to see money burn.

There is a wood burning fireplace in each unit, but after having them inspected, neither are safe to use and need a total of about $1,500 to bring them up to code.

Throughout my analysis, I quickly learned that lack of due diligence can burn you much more quickly with commercial real estate, especially a hotel, compared to residential investment property.I found a partner in one of my good old friends from my days in Navy training.

& the small landlords get seriously burned, I got stories for days.