Having that paycheck for a few years will be very helpful in obtaining loans and will allow you to grow your real estate business at a predictable pace, while ensuring that you (and your family) can eat while doing so.

My youngest son is 14 and a star football player.

This is a simple concept that ensures that a particular house that is for sales find appeal with more and more buyers.

If he/she can't ensure that will happen, find another agent.

I also send them a postcard asking them to go to my web site and sign up for my wholesale buyers list.These are real players who are buying today.

Is there any biggerpocket players in here who could advise and coach me along through finding sellers,buyers and how to transact the deal on both ends.

Actually, batteries in a detector are the responsibility of the owner, not a tenant, you can tag them for the cost, but not the responsibility to ensure a detector is operable, your liability.Put a screen on, show them how to operate windows and screens without messing them up, damaged screens are on them.Educate a tenant in the beginning, do this, don't do that, call me if, don't call me, call this guy if this happens!

While I realize each geographic market is vastly different in terms of acceptable cash on cash returns, I'm curious for what benchmarks or rules you have set for your business to ensure long term financial success.For example, I evaluating a property right now with 11.86% Cash on Cash and that includes 10% vacancy, 12% PM, 5% Cap Ex and 10% Repairs. 

The membership is more diverse and there are major players that drop into this meeting a couple times a year.  

If you can raise the downpayment, I'd think you should be able to raise an extra $40-50K to ensure you have a buffer on the loan payments.Worst case, sounds like a deal you could probably wholesale for a few bucks...