I see a lot of people claiming interest in real estate investing, asking tons of questions, getting tons of answers, then six months later they've switched to bitcoin or gold or some get-rich-quick scheme, or maybe they've completely wandered away from wealth building.

I just spent about $5,000 total on both properties to remove some trees & chain link fencing in the backyard and had it all hauled away.

The gold standard for reserves is 6 months expenses per property and 6 months salary if you have a W2.

There are some banks and credit unions that do not, but every national bank chain is part of the network.

Sounds like they're jerking your chain to see how much they can get from you.  

Currently I am a Region Specialist for In-N-Out Burger, a chain based out of Southern California.

The situation became untenable for scores of restaurants and led to a wave of closures hitting every tier of the industry — from smaller mom and pops to corporate chains like the Cheesecake Factory.

Your response is gold!

Even in today’s market with increased prices for labor and supplies, J Scott’s book will get you close enough to be able to drill down some more, and make a plan for specific costs which may have increased recently due to supply chain issues, etc.

Real Estate is a perfect hedge against inflation, that's a simple fundamental fact of being #1 in that arena 2nd only to possibly gold but gold has serious liquidity conversion issues.