I, on the other hand, spent 20 years in commercial nuclear power in Emergency Services and was tired of the late night calls and the stress.

Of course with that larger scale the demands of managing and your required capital reserves also grow, which is another factor to consider.A lot of what you decide to do will depend on your risk tolerance, ie, how stressed out you're willing to be by taking on debt.

I would like to stress the point that I will add 10% to rehab costs as a cushion for unseen expenses.

It's very stressful and time-consuming.

I hope I can enjoy the tough process with valuable learning, and not be stressed out.

If I were to stress this one thing to a self-managing landlord, it is to keep your emotions out of it and follow the lease as it is written.

When  choosing the contractor you can crush  or sweat a deal out and who needs the extra stress especially when it's taking extra days or a few weeks and profit flowing out your pocket. 

If you've never done it before, its a lot more involved and stressful than fixing up your own home.Check out my profile and let me know f you have any questions.

We do have a lawyer already as well, we just aren't sure if we should keep trying to settle if that would be more cost effective/less stressful, or if we could just see if they move forward.

I suppose it was no coincidence that most of the foreclosures that I saw were in the C&D space and it's also no coincidence that when market cycles mature, capital has a flight to quality to protect the downside.I think the key to surviving the next adverse cycle, whenever that may happen, is to not take on too much debt, stress-test your numbers, and invest in growing markets (where people are moving TO) in good quality properties.