CapEx will eat $100/door in a minute...6.

You're in the enviable position to have your cake and eat it too, since you can tap the equity of the irvine condo for the next purchase. 

This is kind of what I was thinking (with regards to deductibles and HSAs).One other thing I am doing is making my wife and kids work out for three hours a day and eat organic kale to keep them out of the doctor's office. 

since they are on the MLS, doesn't the agent commission eat into the maybe slim profit already?  

Paying off a lot of student loans could eat into your real estate investing plan. 

Overall a great reminder that this is a Spreadsheet business and that the way you eat an elephant is one bite at a time!

She needs to grow the nest egg and gain some experience first.She could always buy 2-3 notes with the $50K and then turn the non performing notes into performing loans with loan modifications and see a 20% return or greater by becoming the bank and not dealing with the headache of toilets and tenants.

The 15 year loan eats into my cash flow quite a bit but of course allows for greater equity build up.

In this case you really want to vet out the person, but can be a way to grow the nest egg fairly fast.

They can inspect before committing but not after tying it up (or if they do a more intensive inspection they can walk and eat the deposit).