I have limited debt and after a divorce rebuilding my credit.

But deferred maintenance like roof, parking lot, and other big issues should be taken into account.You should probably connect with a tax strategist because it might benefit your business overall to paying higher rent, get higher debt on the property, and have significant writeoffs through a cost segregation study.

Well, he seems to have got into terrible debts while he was renting my apartment.

In my case it's my real estate agency, but it could be your day job, flips, wholesaling, or another business you start.While it's doable, I think it's really hard to quit everything and jump into long term investing full time right from the start.By building my active income first, I now have a way to pay my bills outside of my investing portfolio and it allows me to source financing easier, open LOCs, etc.Also, I've worked really hard to get my debt to income down on things other than real estate (i.e. credit cards, car loans, etc).

is the average person/investor to do:(a) first not participate in speculation of prices and (b) brace for stagflation-that comes with a price correction of the housing market/s and the debt market in the coming mid-term time frame.

After restoring possession I called the number of the servicer left behind by the preservation company and explained my belief they had hired a company to illegally break and enter my property and I had reported the matter to the authorities. 

I am free of debt and after lot of hard work saved up for a downpayment.

Was it appreciation or debt pay down?

If you are buying turn key than debt service coverage is the whole game.

Below are the three ways, from my understanding to get VA entitlement restored.