I have struggled with this my whole life, and am kinda getting sick of this fear I have, so I've been taking steady steps to address it, i.e. developing small habits to push me in the direction of my goals, so I'm not as fearful when it comes time to pull the trigger.

In a nutshell, my educated guess was these tenants are living in barely habitable units because that's probably the extent they can afford. 

I'll try to make these two into a habit, it sound like it'll do wonders in motivation!

I’ve made 6 figures consistently the past few years but I’ve spent most of it on high rent, leisure & travel to be honest so only have about 40k liquid for a conventional downpayment on a 200k property.

Once we achieve financial independence, I would love to travel the world, work as a freelancer if needed and spend time with family and work on my hobbies.

And let's face it: no one is saying "let's travel to DFW for a nice vacation".

I get to travel for work, and really enjoy my job.

Or just simply ask about goals and their habits.

You can learn a ton about a market prior to traveling to that market, and the travel should be to either confirm or disprove what you already know based on your research, as well as to build relationships in that market. 

Lot's of visitors for skiing as well as folks traveling to Temple Square. https://www.sltrib.com/news/20...