@Ned Carey 12 month's ago, all 3 apartments were mice-free as established by multiple walk through's.

So find a way to establish their real value and negotiate with seller from there.

Personally, I think that going out of your market that you know and are established in can be more risky.

It had to go anyways, so instead of throwing over $1K into the old unit that needed to be replaced within a couple of years anyways, I went full-tilt and spent $5800 on the all-new stuff.There is a house two doors down that just got scooped up by an investor who seems to be pretty well established in an off-market deal.

Why not look at your first deal as an opportunity to learn the game, build your team, and make (cheaper) mistakes on your way to the bigger deals?

Having your own skin in the game will also help make the deal more attractive to any investor.

There are just a few puzzle pieces that need be assembled.Analytics are a big part of the game, particularly while working with investors, but at most, that will be half of your job as an agent with the other half being prospecting. 

In poker, the chips from lost hands, are just in differents pile on the table...and can be recovered as long as you have chips left to stay in the game. 

Sure looks to me like you made some big sacrifices for long term success... doubled your portfolio... in a year you'll have all your money back out... over $200/door cash flow... once you get your rents up where they should be it will increase as well.... for most on BP, the long game is the driving force. 

I guess it will just be more of a waiting game then, I just couldn't believe people were posting their properties with such misleading numbers and figured I must be doing something wrong!