If that's true, I would dive into podcasts/audiobooks while driving/doing chores etc while simultaneously focusing on tightening the belt to save cash for a down payment and cleaning up your credit.Then when opportunity strikes you will be both mentally and financially prepared to jump!

Plus, some people would do repairs different than others, Band-Aids versus surgery mentality.3.

You place zero value on cash, this makes you simply a speculator on this property and probably most of your properties all have zero/negative cash flow for the same reason (excluding possibly your low end investments).You would be way farther ahead to pull the cash, park it in a mutual fund and and reduce your losses on the property if you really want to hold on to it.Obviously having a cash hording mentality driving you to pay off properties/mortgages this will never work for you, understandable but not investor wise.

There were a number of factors that led to doing it at this point:1) The time it took to maintain both my day job and manage the portfolio was taking its toll2) I was making more money at a lower tax rate with real estate than the W-2 income3) I was mentally ready to focus on real estate and change my quality of lifeYou are definitely asking the right questions and as someone who had the same goal and has not made that goal a reality, I'm rooting for your success! 

I think it was the mentality of the area. 

You have to be fully committed and mentally prepared to take on any investment but even more so in a situation like this.You can get the addresses of absentee owners for free on the county tax website but you just have to do the legwork to turn it into a list to mail to.

I'm with you on the corporate life imbalance - real estate requires a strong entrepreneurial mentality which it sounds like you have, cheers to attaining a life a fulfillment!

I have a small business mentality and work ethic to the core.Again, thank you so much for the feedback.

In San Francisco, it doesn't matter what you list it at, but you're going to want to list it a little bit lower than the market so that people see the property and all the properties in the bay area sell for much higher than list price.In Memphis where we do some deals, we list the property for our highest amount, because the mentality of many buyers is to make offers below list price. 

Karen Margrave seems like it comes from some kind of scarcity mentality ?