Two last pieces of advice:1) Hire the best PM's possible and make sure you have regular meetings with them.2) Make sure you have the best tenants possible - know your PM's tenant screening methods.

I'm sure if you break down "selling one house", "under contract on one", "starting renovation" to small pieces, none of the them are really that stressful.

You might want to agree to appoint a neutral to arbitrate any dispute.Also, if you think that you might want to own your piece through an individual LLC or trust someday, make sure that the language of your LLC agreement permits a transfer to a related entity whenever you want to do so.

If you need to cancel because the loan isn’t happening due to an appraisal issue your mortgage broker just tells them the loan isn’t getting approved. you have the loan contingency and that’s all you really need. 4. include a letter about yourself – what you do for a living etc. without it your offer is just a piece of paper with a name – the sellers don’t know who you are and it helps if they have a sense of who they are dealing with. you can even BS a bit and say you really need to close soon for whatever reason – maybe kids are starting school – Sellers like motivation attached to offers – they will believe you will be less likely to walk away or cancel over an inspection item.

To make decisions that would affect a series of events that would cause you to create some sort of asset whether it be a check cut from an escrow account or a fresh piece of real estate that is cash flowing quite well is just hard for some people to fathom.If you have self-doubt about your own abilities to succeed in this business of real estate investing then go and listen to the podcasts as I am doing currently.

I'm willing to spend some money for piece of mind.

That piece lays out 3 fundamental principles: get a good deal when you buy (20% discount), appreciate the property early on (10%+), and ensure a certain level of cash flow (2%+). 

To take your advice, my plan, while I'm sure it's going to take at least 6 months to get a deal at this rate in this market, is to mail out at least 100 pieces a month in my county to people who still owe taxes from last year's tax sale list (until this year's becomes available).

Americans are holding a fantasy view of their piece of the American dream\middle class membership.

If I could give one piece of advice to anyone in the world, real estate investor or not, it would be read every Thomas Sowell book.