Too many little expenses that I do not know if my mom can afford.

Or you can go a little North to Wilton that has excellent schools, or a little farther east to Westport, but Norwalk is by far the most affordable.

Eg, if the tenant can only afford $600 instead of $650, the property is empty for a month if the tenant leaves, then it'll take you 13 months to make up that missing month.In my opinion, empty properties don't make money.FWIW, we have dropped rents for tenants in the past, like the couple who had just had a child and her company fired her when she went into labor three weeks early.

But to investors, it's become a major expense, and the frustrating thing is that it is an expense that purchases nothing, except to pad the pockets of an HOA.

I could not afford more than $50k purchase with $25k rehab. 

Those range from 130-160K and would be pretty affordable, especially if you could buy it as a primary residence, and they would make great short term rentals being right in the heart of downtown.

Here's why.If you were buying a property to live in, you would accept whatever you could afford, and what the property was worth.  

I like to transact with someone formal (with plans if possible), knows what they want (Specifications or SKU list a plus), who won't tell us what to do (we know what we are doing), who can afford to pay the level of our service we provide (insurance of all types are expensive, and we also have a family to feed).

I know it is a process but, does anyone else get frustrated with how long the process can take??!!

Over the past few weeks I've been going back and and forth in my mind, even getting frustrated trying to find information on what to do.