I mainly dial for dollars and the deals are not consistent, and it's very time consuming.

In the same scenario people would cut back on consumer spending thus requiring many stocks to either pull back on dividends until the market improves or dip into their reserves to keep investors happy.Just my two cents

Expenses will consume 50% of your rental income before debt repayment.With rent at $750 - expenses - debt repayment = ?

Is it a time/money consuming project to relocate the water heaters to a different location, so that I can optimize my kitchen space?

The most time consuming part was searching for the deal.... the rest was a breeze.

For example, I have a set amount of cash to invest currently, but if I buy a property using cash, it will consume all of my cash on hand.

http://www.har.com/content/newsroom/Single-family home sales continued their post-Hurricane Harvey comeback as volume rose 7.4 percent year-over-year with 6,184 units sold;Single-family home sales remain 3.3 percent ahead of 2016’s year-to-date volume;Days on Market (DOM) for single-family homes increased from 57 days in November 2016 to 61 days this November;Total property sales increased 4.9 percent with 7,270 units sold;Total dollar volume jumped 8.4 percent to $2.0 billion;The single-family home median price rose a fractional 0.3 percent to $225,725, which represents a November high;The single-family home average price increased 0.9 percent to $284,250, also the highest level for a November;Single-family homes months of inventory grew year-over-year to a 3.7-months supply, but is down from a 4.3-months pre-Harvey peak – the result of a surge in consumer demand for housing;Townhome/condominium sales fell 3.0 percent, with the average price down 5.4 percent to $196,546 and the median price down 3.2 percent to $158,100;Leases of single-family homes rose 6.8 percent with the average rent up 2.1 percent to $1,763;Volume of townhome/condominium leases jumped 20.1 percent with average rent down 0.5 percent to $1,498.

They are also the hardest to shop in the sense that it's the most time consuming to get pre approved etc...Also, good people tend to know good people...through my lender I was able to piece together realtors/insurance. 

You did not mention whether or not you have consumer debt so I am assuming no, either way $30k non mortgage debt is still a large number. 

These things can show someone is responsible, but since you aren't borrowing money, technically it is not "credit" and does not appear on a credit report.It's actually quite disappointing how our society, and my industry as well, frowns on folks that are averse to consumer debt.