I've put tons of work into this, but I think I can still be dissuaded if enough experienced investors tell me that I'm utterly off-base.

Utterly ridiculous. 

Whether he is trying to rip you off or just utterly incompetent, your PM has no value... actually he has negative value.

You will be called upon to deal with any number of things that will test your intestinal fortitude and if you can’t make it past the easy stuff you will be utterly paralyzed by the day to day issues that can crop up.Once you get insurance and a CO completed, that’s ball game.

@Shane H. that certainly sucks and I have had dirt bag tenants as well and to this day if my wife utters their names it ticks me off all over again, sounds pathetic but its true.  

The point of the article was to introduce a thought experiment to help folks who financially suffer under common misconceptions, as millions of aspiring homeowners are romantic about real estate, and spend more than they budgeted for that bigger house or bigger yard, or a chefs stove that is a total and utter SUNK COST, and then justify it by parroting that "Your home is your biggest investment" expression.

They can barely afford to pay their mortgages and taxes there and live in perpetual fear that they'll have to downgrade or move their kids out of the school system they're in, an unthinkable loss of social status.As their kids grow, they unthinkingly strengthen then strong and weaken the weak, culminating in too many avoidable instances of weak, brittle, fearful young people of privilege who are unable to deal with any sort of real adversity and only really do anything when faced with the possibility that inaction might significantly damage their own precious social status, documented daily on Instagram, Facebook, etc.So in my private life of old friends and family, I find myself somewhat hemmed in by incredibly hard-working people who care a great deal about social status and constantly make utterly inane excuses about why they're all so damned broke as they drive massively depreciating cars and live in houses that are dumpster fires of various expenses.

There is so much wrong and incorrect with comparing the mortgage situation today with pre 08/09 that it's like talking to a toddler about calculus, that's how utterly clueless those of you look when you argue that point, like clueless children. 

I've really never done it because my mind is so programmed in one specific way, that splurging feels like an utter waste.

.), expanded taxing of the successful, utter contempt for the police force.