I agree with you that cutting every cost in half and saying "that half's for the house" is completely bogus. 

He got straight there(15-30mins) and facetimed me, showed me around and put an offer for me right there and then. 

I’m going for electrician, but I’m obviously not cut out for it and don’t want to waste my money or time since I pay for my own schooling and have little time for real estateIf I were to drop out I would have time to find a mentor, read, attend seminars, attend open houses, analyze more properties etc... my goal is to retire by 30 and I would be going to community college for another 3-6 years at the rate I’m going now.

It was built in 1917 and was done nicely I'm just not sure if corners were cut and that is hard to get down to until the inspection.Thanks in advanced for all your responses,MarieChele

It's nice just sitting back and collecting interest instead of running around meeting with sellers, contractors, title companies, etc.Yes i found this a very natural progression for many investors.. almost all start out with rentals.. and over the years they just burn out of them.. but want to stay in real estate understand real estate and then morph to the debt side instead of the equity side.. but believe me when a loan goes bad you do have your work cut out for you.. and you can for sure lose money.. 

Then I used a company to create a Checkbook Control IRA LLC which allows me to pay the contractors directly instead of using the IRA custodian to cut checks.

I did a majority of the work myself to cut down costs and do the property management.

Consider also having landscaping done such as cutting the grass or shoveling snow. 

Section 8 would cut down on management expenses, rent collection issues, vacancies, etc.What is the quality of your tenants?

It sucked, but paying someone for asbestos protocols is hideously expensive because they can't cut corners that a homeowner might.