We give $500/month, mortgage $1200, minimum student loans $711, van loan $171, daycare currently around $600/month (will go up now that we have 2nd child), phones, energy, internet, water, trash combine for $360, auto insurance $143/mo...etc.We got rid of directv 18 months ago, do 80% of our grocery shopping at aldi, we don't use credit cards (except when i was running my online store), we rarely eat out.

If you think this is bad wait to you get the not of getting,a new property tenated through the section 8 inspection & approval process or better yet the annual inspections that can result in section 8 stopping your rent payments of the tenants break things in the house or don't let the inspectors inside.As for a solution your probably just going to have to eat this one if the seller doesn't return the money.

I am a newbie and work full time and all these online providers such as Roofstock are great for someone like meBut the more I am getting myself into this game, the more I am concerned that repairs and vacancies will eat my profits away and at the end, the properties are not sell-able too and I will be stuck with them or lose big.If you are passive investor and invest out of state, I am interested to know what your long-game strategy is?

Circa $170k.If you only went for a 15 year refi, your PITI payments would still eat up all the rent, right?

Then you have to account for closing costs probably to the tune of couple grand each time, then costs to get the unit rent ready, and carrying costs... probably going to eat up more then you'd think.Now to go on the commercial side it's probably even worse.

Perhaps, if we can swing the finances, we can eat a loss for a bit while the tenant hopefully recovers and gets back on their feet.

I will have to get a whole new floor, cabinets, and dry wall as well as get reimbursed for all of our eating expenses since we cannot use the kitchen... and this is all covered by my insurance policy.

looks lets make this easy, if you're hungry you'll eat.

Or as a wise investing friend of mine once said, "You can't eat a Cap Rate"...meaning that even though a Cap Rate might be very good, cash flow might be terrible, depending on how the deal is structured. 

We just arrived to Spokane, WA from England in November and since then I've been trying to eat up as much information as I can get my hands on about investing in Real Estate.