I had tracked my expenses meticulously for the 2 years leading up to that decision so I had a pretty good sense of where I would have to cut back to make the transition work.

For a primary residence, my advice is to keep that a life decision and not an investment decision.

Do you have anything like this you'd be willing to share that lets you make these high-speed, on-the-spot decisions on a property? 

Price point, area/location, individual investors abilities or finances, individual investor's risk tolerance or business plan, level of rehab, etc.As an example, the 70% rule (more appropriately should be named "70% guideline), is a simple back of the napkin analysis and is NOT ever to be used to make your final purchase decision.

Thanks for playing devils advocate though always good to reevaluate my decision.

However, I'd like to vocalize my opinion on here and it can just be taken with a grain of salt:My intention here is not to guide you to any decision but to suggest considering if you can achieve your goals via other methods and consider the opportunity cost of both doing and not doing something.

They just complicate the current decision matrix, and you could be introducing them as "opportunities" to mask what you already know about the situation.

Okay Bigger Pockets Folks The time has come for me to make some decisions: My situation: I live in Sf Bay Area in California. 

I've not been able to receive any insurance pay-out yet (from HO-6 or master) as my HO-6 adjuster needs to know how the master deductible will be "split" - a decision that I fear won't be finalized until each of the (four?)

Good luck with your decision.