Go ahead and sing one round of kumbaya for every layer of insane risk the OP is asking about, then triple it because the problems he will face compound exponentially. 

Say you make 20% compounded and double your money in about 4 years. 

Her only defense was a text message stating "I'll pay you next week".

To his defense, I called him to ask about what was going on and he told me that he had been trying to contact the seller's agent.

I don't know about the left coast, and other areas, but the lost note defense seemed to have legs here for about 10 minutes, and only in the minds of some foreclosure defense attorneys.

Also how did you present yourself and the reason you were there without the owners getting really mad or defensive about there position.

No experience on my end, but looking at it from a financial point of view, depending on your age and retirement goals, it may not make much sense to take 401K money out to fund rentals unless their cap rates are really good.Depending on the amount in the 401K, it may be able to compound and provide a much higher ROI in future years than cash flow on rental properties could.  

According to my rudimentary math, I would need to earn about 21%  compounded annually, to gain the same dollars by keeping.

Instead of being defensive, you could answer the question which could lead to a discussion and some learning on your part.MANY people come on here after seeing an infomercial or some webcast and they have misguided ideas about what is achievable...especially with regard to wholesaling.

I'm a Philadelphia native, military veteran and defense contractor with a background in IT.