When you run your calculations on what your net profit will be after selling, you make the judgment call; that as the deal sits you make let's say $36,000 net profit and would be happy making $28,000 and therefore raise your offer incrementally.When I first started out flipping, I came to the same conclusions as you and went against the grain.

@Tina Opel you need to sit down and talk to a tax accountant experienced in rental property.

People who sit around waiting for another raise, and when they get it, they start dreaming of what they can buy (literally ran a study the day after raises were announced and you would be amazed how many monitors had new cars, new houses, new purses, new computers, new toys on them...everyone wanted to blow the money they just got before even recieveing it)Everyone has a different "financial problem" although the problem is simple, they all spend too much money on un needed stuffAll of these people are Destined to be W-2 workers the rest of their lives, because they car they drive is a direct necessity to their overall imageThe moral of the (probably poorly told) story is, if you want to be an investor, then you have to think like one.

Over the summer, I'll be doing some renovations/repairs and making a 4th bedroom out of what used to be a sitting room/formal living room. 

I have a rental property in the metro area of Denver, CO currently est. value sits at around 200k.  

Plus the HELOC sits there until its ready to be used. 

As I sit here, complete noob, thinking, man I despise how expensive Chicago is, yet we go there often...what if I had a air bnb there?  

Maybe consider avenues of REI that don't require a down payment; like the sit-on-a-beach-and-make-10K-wholesaling-in-8-hours methods….or maybe not.

Now you need to sit down and take the time to learn all your state landlord tenant regulations so that in the future you do not make any more mistakes when dealing with tenant issues.

I didn't want to continue to sit on the sideline with such a wonderful networking/educational tool at my disposal.