LOL But honestly, if anything, stuff like horse racing etc is the stuff to cut if you truly don't have enough time.

This lets you buy a place with a lower down payment and if done right, cuts your living expenses to almost nothing.

Cash flow is extremely hard to come by around here (everywhere right now), but these numbers look pretty decent ($250-300 "pure" CF, depending how you cut it), even after accounting for $900/yr. in flood insurance (owner currently pays $800). 

I'd like to cut the commute time and save that gas money to buy more real estate!!

My biggest apprehension is that this $36,000 down payment is going to cut pretty deep into my cash reserves (pulling this out of the stock market) and only leave me with about $15,000 for future ventures (without dipping into emergency fund/savings).Not sure what the right answer is here.

Make sure you also able to provide value to them, otherwise you're just wasting their time. 

Tenants who pay utilities themselves might appreciate the fan to cut back on cost of having AC running. 

Some banks won’t write certain types of properties or properties with certain deficiencies do don’t waste your time talking to all of them upfront. 

And consider cutting down/killing the tree.

Questions should be addressed through the project manager (Asansa).In conclusion, in business when you run into trouble brainstorm with more experienced business owners to cut your learning curve and not waste time.