I’m well aware that we’re late in this current cycle and didn’t want to overpay too badly.

There is usually no timer based coin-op for washer, they are programmed to pay per wash cycle. 10 minutes isnt long enough to rinse out the detergent anyway even if that was a thing:) Only dryers pay by dry time, but usually even those usually require a default 40 minutes for example and extra quarters would add increments.

Throw out all of the news cycles, talking heads, etc. 

It's more about understanding where your market stands within the growth cycle.

Hello, here is my opinion on the matter.Real estate requires significant capital investment, involves long sales cycles and is subject to market fluctuations.

I wouldn’t pay too much in this market cycle.

The scenario you've described going from 10 caps to 5 caps is what we've seen over this market cycle.

I have seen investors come and go here in fairly frequent cycles, lots of turnover.

After reading "Rich Dad Poor Dad" in order to break the "poor" cycle for my kids, Audible suggested "The Book on Rental Property Investing" which made me realize that it wasn't too late to break the "poor" cycle for myself.

And in my situation further north, we have freeze-thaw cycles that compound these water erosion issues.