They rationalize it ~Rational -lies.Often they use of the myth of the poor stupid seller that has been living in the Himalayas as a hermit for years and suddenly inherited a house, and because the hermit never heard of Zillow or Real Estate Agents, falls victim to the evil wholesaler.Conclusion: Be a person of integrity, but don't be fooled by or discouraged by the phony ethics police because they are either frauds or ignorant or both.

The status is a tax concept and is not related to the license.

"Living life" is just a way people rationalize not wanting to delay gratification.

Being my first investment property I felt this took a lot of the risk off of the table because there was proof of concept.

If you walk away from every single house that has a infinitesimally small and no longer problematic issue, you're never going to end up buying a house ever, and in this market there's no way a reasonable or rational seller would allow you to tear up drywall just to look at a leak that no longer exists.If the home inspector said you're OK, you're OK.

To hear the podcast or read in a book the advice of large volume, large business flipping, borrowing or partnering unnecessarily is a foreign concept to us. 

Since everyone's risk tolerance is different, there is no one way to calculate this simply, but think of the overall concept. 

Wasn't sure if this was rational but we (my wife and I) both have income and aren't dependent on the cashflow. 

In reading up on this concept online, it seems that the European model is more investor friendly.  

This concept is "called dollar cost averaging".