Lower down payment, gives you time to fix up the property a bit, and is more scalable for first time investors.As for FHA, even in this market it's seen as something sellers don't tend to prioritize over cash or conventional loans.

It's easier to keep the 'it's just business' mentality when you havent blurred the lines before. 

The YNAB 'system' directs the user to assign jobs/goals/purposes to every dollar they own, thereby prioritizing what is most important to them.

The majority of us in here would prioritize buying your first property > going into student loan debt. 

Most start charging what their employer charges because people use the mentality of I can do this on my own to make the same money.

At the end of the day you need to prioritize features, pricing, etc. and see what works best for you. 

Mentally, it's becoming really hard to live with my mom.

This is somewhat more controversial to rely so heavily on numbers but for a newbie, it was way easier to have a black and white picture on whether a deal made sense or not for my criteria. 90% of the time, the numbers didn't look good but when it did, I had the confidence to know that there might be something here and that it was go-time to have my realtor visit the property and make a verbal offer....Be Confident: One of the biggest mental breakthroughs I had was when my mentor told me to just start making offers if the numbers and property looked good.

Provide value and have a mentality of wanting to help others and people will naturally flock to you and want to help you succeed.

@Jason Watts okay, your 'agent' sounds like a peach - First you need to surround yourself with professionals that have a 'can do' mentality instead of a defeatist mentality like your agent... now I'm not saying work with someone that is delusional but you definitely need people that are energetic, knowledge and accomplish 'it' no matter what it is.