If your focus is purely on the website, then they can certainly be a great option. 

So my hope is to continue educating myself and eventually move away from purely passive approach.

I ask the "have you caused delays" question purely as an internal exercise. 

I know this is all just pure guesswork, but I'm curious where my fellow BP'ers feel the rates will be in the near future.

We will always try to relate our personal stories (the good and the bad) in with them, but I can't see us ever doing a show purely about our own personal stories.

to ask a realtor to show me properties in the same neighborhood/price range as my rehab will be sold in, just for the pure sake of getting a better take on my competition?

Based purely on the numbers, would you buy this?

Working purely off the rent, I'd do it like this:Rent: $2400NOI: $1200 (50% rule)Desired cash flow: $300 (three units)Max payment: $900Max loan amount / price: $150,000 (6%, 30 years)Now given it was under contract for $180K two years ago, you would want to adjust that downward.

Banks love them, but they are purely speculation and pie in the sky projections of what the potential income could be one day.

Without that, the rest is pure speculation.