YOU - that's who.Funds 'clear', you spend the money and time passes.... 

Been poking around at creative financing as I don’t want to spend three years saving the equity for a down payment to secure a loan I can afford (credit isn’t an issue as I have a 720+ credit score).

When it comes time for you to take over the oceanside property as your personal residence, there's probably a decent chance you're going to spend some cheddar renovating the place.

You will then have to foreclose when the tenant buyer doesn't pay you.Why would anybody relinquish control of a $345,000 asset for $100?  

I fully understand the spend 24,000 to make 124,000 but if you look in other areas you can find better deals. 

@Patrick Desjardins  its why we pretty much control all process of our note business.. we don't waste a bunch of time on scouting or trying to figure out values and condition of property..

1. if you have no other way to learn the business of real estate and you spend 20k to learn it and you IMPLEMENT what you learn...

If you're the only one charging for gas on top of the rent, then I wouldn't consider it.Unlike water, and if you control the thermostat as I do at my rentals, unless the tenants purposely leave the windows open on cold days to spite you, you do have some control over gas usage.

I guess it is a number thing, which leads me to one last question (I promise not to bug you too much):  How do you allocate your time efficiently; is it heavily invested in crunching numbers and finding the right piece of property to invest in, or do you spend more time on the rehab component of the project itself?  

After you get that commission check what do you spend your money on to improve your real estate business?