We know that people have certain needs according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.Food, Clothing, and Shelter are the essentials that must be achieved before moving up the hierarchy.

I went over budget quite a bit on this one but I think the finished product couldn't have been achieved short of what I spent on the renovation.

The 1% rule that is talked about would be hard to achieve.

Admittedly from the experience with our 3 college graduated kids most of it today could be achieved on-line but then I wouldn't have the party pics of their college days to give me the vicarious pleasure of reminding them of how they suffered a 'tough life/struggle' getting a tertiary education. 

I am in a bit of a pickle; I am deciding how to achieve my goal of owning buy and hold real estate.

That being said, if you are still able to achieve $150/mo with huge reserves, that maybe overly conservative, that would be a good deal. 

This is my story so far and I wanted everyone on bigger pockets to know that it was all of your success storys that made me push so hard to achieve the dreams I have and your storys and my vision of who I will be will continue to push me.     

--Christopher RiceIt's how you deal with failure that determines how you achieve success.

@Leo Chun I'd start with a number in mind that you'd like to achieve on a percentage return basis then start analyzing properties in various cities you might want to invest in and see where the numbers roughly pencil out to, then reassess at that point. 

If it was on sewer for $1.1M I could achieve an ARV of ~$1.5M (at today's valuation.