it took forever to close and was pushed back even further when they found out they had to pay a bill.

You need to have the ability to sway 10 people your direction.3.

Fast forward to the age of 22, when most people are graduating, and have either:1) financed education = student loan debt2) paid cash for educationYou will have impeccable credit, several properties under your belt, and will be on your way to building wealtheither way you slice it, you have tied up your credit(which impacts your capability to borrow), or you have tied up your cash(which impacts your ability to purchase).Rather than paying more for theoretical knowledge, I would get my Sales Assoc license, build credit, open a Roth IRA, educate myself on macro economics, stocks, and the banking system.

Taking on difficult conversations is certainly neccessary in pursuing any aspect of REI (e.g not satisfied with contractor's performance, relaying complaints from one tenant about another, etc).Some people have have the ability to effortlessly launch into these types of discusssions.For others, it is more of a challenge to initiate these types of conversations.

Those people can attest that the opportunity cost of sitting on the sidelines has been costly.Yes, there are still deals to be had, keep doing your research, be consistent and try to get in the game with a deal that meets YOUR desired risk/return criteria, while diligently protecting the downside through adequate cash reserves, conservative underwriting and the ability to hold long term. 

That being said, you should set a quantity of mailers each month that you think you could keep up with the phone calls.There are two things that you should ask yourself that will help you determine your mailing quantity:1) Your budget2) Your ability to handle the callsIt might help you to answer these questions if you had an idea on what to expect in respect to the response rates.

I know it may potentially hurt my ability to rent, and (of particular interest) may hurt my ability to get new jobs.On the other hand, if I declared bankruptcy I I could take the $975 of minimum it sometimes feels as though not declaring bankruptcy is to suffer through the next couple decades for my sense of cultural shame.

Plus you have the ability to cash flow like crazy. 

Hamilton and Kitchener are great secondary cities with the ability to commute to Toronto.

These will allow you to have a value add play with the ability to minimize the amount of seed capital stuck in a property (or even a quick exit with lease options).