You may have to take a slight reduction in rent but you clearly need to focus on getting some income, not spending more money.

@Shawn McGarity it is absolutely worth it to spend time finding a good and reliable contractor.

I am very data oriented, but also very busy in my day job, i feel that spending a few hundred dollars on a property to help develop a good number or show a bad deal early on then being stuck loosing thousands at the end of a deal. 

I had some additional funds when I started but like you I was a military guy with only $9K to spend.

Worth right at 2 billion.

Having a security system is vital to saving costs, though it may sound like you're spending hundreds of dollars up front. 

Honestly speaking I enjoy the hunt of finding deals more than the actual deals themselves, so I don't mind spending tons of time analyzing deals and driving neighborhoods every week.

@Fernanda Netto, you're going to spend $161k on a property with an ARV of $130?

I estimated I would spend about $20,000.00 into it and the plan was to list it around $100,000.00 with 6 months flip time (I work full time and planned to work on it nights and weekends but since it was all cash I wasn’t worried about the timeline).

I spend extra time when I'm spending money to make sure I get the best value from that purchase.Example, new TV 3k, other places 2500, few other online retailers 1800.