After remodeling an entire bathroom I found no reason to spend more on the mortar.

If you want to save $2k make the three hour drive up and spend the weekend.

If you are going to be Hacking a House, spending cash on remodeling, major repairs, or a large purchase such as new appliances.

You'll need to spend money on an attorney for a lot of things, but this isn't one of them.  

I would be better off just spending more time and energy being a realtor and making more sales.  

I also spend a lot of my time at work listening to podcasts from Bigger Pockets and the Rich Dad Radio Show.But let's get into real estate.

One of the agents in my office who signed up the day after i did has really clicked with me and we talk a lot and actually realistically help one another. 

If you were in a large market that were/are significantly inflated, then a 20% equity position might still be very risky as prices could drop 50%.As far as tax consequences of paying interest, of course you don't want to spend money on interest simply for the tax deduction.

Putting all our stuff in the garage while we spend the next couple years doing this to avoid capital gains.We're both from California and most familiar with those markets and homes.

If you spend all your time and energy into finding properties that you can sell for ridiculously low prices, you will not need to work on finding buyers/investors.