I understand the 1% and 2% rules for buying, but how does repairs to get a place livable come into play with renting? 

Terry Burger (a 7 Figure Flipping board member and REI professional) hired someone to answer calls live and paid them $12 an hour with a bonus if a deal closed.

but it's all a long play, and hopefully we'll all look like geniuses in 15 years. 

Also, if anyone does have any suggestions for a first-time home buyer on what a good move would be with the markets right now that would end up being a bonus.

I inherited her when I bought the house and later realized she was playing games with the other landlord other landlord didn't tell me about this until after I closed. she's now playing similar game with me and seems like the courts system is helping her to do this.

I started out strong with mine in high school then quit in college and never started again and now I’m 45 trying to play catch up and hoping real estate can fix my retirement account.

Then they played the let me call my partners and talk about it.

If you're taking into account the ballpark number of $900/mo (or whatever you're planning on paying in rent) x 24 months (just an average based on new build timelines and playing the waiting game with material pricing etc) that would be about $21K ish- or about half or 1/3 of the cost (this will be area specific to you of course) of a small modular home maybe. 

I feel like agents might play with the numbers in order to make it seem like a better deal that it is actually.

When doing a cash out refi, you don't have to take all of the 50k out, you can play with the numbers so you can take some out for a down payment and still cashflow.