I will continue to try to balance the everything, and make decisions based on numbers, not emotions.  

An higher emotional response to an emotional response gets you nowhere in these situations.  

If it's abandoned, it most likely is non-owner-occupied which will help you in that the seller may not be as emotionally attached to the property as he or she would be if it were their actual residence. 

It really helped me more concretely understand how the muscular system functioned  at a deeper level.

I agree I need to dig much deeper and plan to, I find that my risk tolerance is low yet I expect the reward.

Find their motivation and use that as a way to make the deal work.When identifying the deal, take emotion out of the picture and don't get any properties under contract if it doesn't make sense to the end buyer.  

They're still out there, you just have to dig deeper. 

Anyways, even after reading lots of articles about how real estate profits are made when buying not selling, I admit that we were blinded by the excitement of owning our first home, and were emotionally attached to the prospects of fixing it up, and living there.  

Hi I am really new to the real estate business and honestly its been a rollercoaster of emotions for me as I am very particular in doing things the right way.

Trying to remind myself there are no emotions in this business, but this is tough to take.