Fortunately, we were able to get the loan at the end.

Fortunately (or rather, un) I have had run ins with property tax issues from building my home a county over.

Fortunately, we went there in person to check it out while we were still within the inspection period.

You can save a fortune in labor if you know what you're doing!

@Kyle Barazowski I've only been in REI for just over 6 years and have don 40 properties and I can say without a doubt finding good, honest contractors that do work the right way is by far the hardest part.I've been fortunate to not have any bad experiences with being ripped off but know others that have.

Not all of us are fortunate enough to have that possible - I have a car loan and a small mortgage on my personal residence.

I'm fortunate enough to have caught a small slice of the profits of the past few years. 

Fortunately, you dont need to be an expert to succeed at self-directing.

Fortunately I have a commercial architect friend who can run the span & beam deflection numbers for me.

I found that out afterwards.The neighborhood started cleaning up pretty well as time went on, but fortunately for me, I obtained management that knew how to deal with this stuff sometime in 2004(within a year of my purchase.)