I completely agree i really didn't want to spend every last dollar I had to get this deal done just for that reason.

Timing may be bad to quit your job.What you may want to consider doing is buying something in the midwest that does cashflow, and then spending the money when you buy it to fix it up, get max rents, etc.

Wouldn’t you agree that being able to drive to his first property in 2 hours rather than spend $1000 on a trip to the Midwest?

Let me get this straight, you want to take money you have now (at no cost to you), spend it (putting into the house as equity), then take it back with cost (refi)? 

They tend to jave unreasonable price expectations, will not negotiate a home inspection in good faith, the property usually wont appraise because there is no listing agent involved, they wont drop the price when it doesnt appraise, they wont make lender required repairs and so on and so on.So why spend 20 hours on a transaction that is very unlikely to close?

I am choosing real estate because it offers me an opportunity to spend my time on things that I want to spend them on.

A lender gets <$400 fee spending 30 hours process your application on a 30 years loan? 

Definitely spend a lot of time reading on the BP forums.

Hi BP,I currently use Mint to track my spending and monitor my rental expenses for tax purposes.

I wouldn't spend any of that though.