I went as far as to have my paycheck split to where I live off 1/2 my earnings with the other half going directly into my real estate account.It taught me to comfortably live on less and made payday more exciting.It's awesome to see young people so forward focused!

Depending on what that real threshold is, there may be alternatives with a first lien that might be more 'comfortable'.  

For me to feel comfortable in buying the next buy-and-hold property, I need an emergency fund, and I save up to 25% for the next  down payment for the next property, as well a couple thousand in reserves for make-ready, marketing, and vacancy on a new purchase.

The MOST that I am seeing is 75% LTV and most banks are not comfortable with big cash outs. 

I have become pretty comfortable with understanding how to serve our needs by managing real property from far away.

Finally after feeling comfortable with all the forums and articles I've read, I'm ready.

It takes a lot of work to learn a market, and assemble a team to feel comfortable in buying a house thousands of mils away. 

Thank God they invented gel seats!

I'm not comfortable with that level of work and finance commitment just yet and the rental as an exit option #'s just wont work.However, we also looked at a duplex in a nice part of town, 3bd/1.5ba and the #'s are very nice.  

I would figure out what path will generate the largest profit (or smallest loss) given an amount of effort you're comfortable with -- then do that.Of course, this is something that you should have figured out BEFORE you placed your bid...what makes you think the deals are profitable if you haven't gone through the exercise of analyzing them?