How many of these same owners ONLY eat at the cheapest restaurants or buy the cheapest groceries?

It does eat into your cashflow until you can refinance and pay it off because you have to account for the interest as an operating expense. 

I just hate to see the newer that need savings and cash--flow for expansion or to eat start out with a PM.  

That will save you a lot of routine calls to professionals that will eat into your profits.

or they will eat it  depends on if I have done a lot of business with them.  

Hi Todd,(Assuming you are not allowed to do this before you bid) Once you move in pay of a home inspection service to give you a written report of the problems.That's the only way to tell.Then fix what's needed to be fixed.Peking through the windows will reveal if there appliances inside, but not their condition or remaining service life.Shop Vacs eat spiders, just remember they may still be alive in the vac-bag and crawl back out for their revenge when you turn it off.Good Luck!

I guess you could argue that if someone can't find a house to buy, they have the down payment money (if they were to put 20% down) to pay for rent, but without an increase in wages/jobs, and inflation currently eating away at that money, that well would run dry at some point.

But again, under the refinance scenario you can have your cake and eat it too by using some of your equity to acquire property in a different area while keeping the one you have.

@Daniel Fitzroy there is an old saying, "Don't sh1t where you eat."

You're not going to eat up equity and not going to pay nearly as much in monthly payment as the points would cost.It's all a math problem.