Penny

A real simple answer, HOUSING is a GAMBLE - believe it or NOT, the Invisible STROKE of luck is at its full force when you buy:Example: hundreds of folks became millionaires who bought between 2011-2013 - TIMING - a stroke of luck - which a few calculated/researched/predicted and hence capitalized on it.There are many types of landlords - frugal/slum-lords/penny-pinchers/businessmen etc. = pick your choice!

I suspect the walls have had 15+ coats of non-leaded paint since 1978, but I don't know how deep the test goes.Are there any situations where lead can cost a modest amount of money to remediate, or are we facing a huge financial burden once any lead is found?

You can have an attorney "paper it" (draft the agreement), but that will cost a pretty penny or you can roll the dice and do it on Law Depot or something like that.

I don't want to sugar coat anything.

When you actually do a BRRR deal in real life, you don't always know without a shadow of a doubt if you will get every penny back.

It's one way but I prefer to "hack the system" and use the data from really great organizations who have spent crazy $ and human resources to peg the hot markets of tomorrow, and just ride there coat tail too profits. 

Are you saving every last penny you can?

A plumber cut the drywall and detected the water leak coming from copper pipes that's connected to the bathtub in the bathroom upstairs.

What I would do is start saving every penny so that once you're old enough to move out you can put a down payment on a house.