Investing in real estate is like planting trees, they do not bear shade or fruit in the first few years, if your horizon is 10+ years you will be very happy you took action earlier in life.

If spreads are narrow (<10–15%), the juice might not be worth the squeeze.Team matters – Find a local property manager early — they’ll give you honest rent comps and renovation cost insights far better than online research.It sounds like you’ve got a solid analytical base. 

If you’re truly cash positive and locking in a solid area, that’s a green light in my book — especially if your plan is to hold mid-term and use bonus depreciation to juice year-one returns.4.

I think they do not have enough incentive to save you money, find a deal that is going to work for you, and the juice is not worth the squeeze.

Which in a way, is fair, but I believe this is their loop hole to only fund the low hanging fruit deals, and stick people with a bill of 4-7k and a property search app that isn’t that good in the first place. anyway, I am always looking to connect, dining the next project, and get it funded!

I think that is the main decision here... is the juice really worth the squeeze, or would your time and effort be better spent treating the experience as "tuition" and refocusing on moving other things forward. 

When apathy sets in, that often triggers the "buy" signal.I’ve been getting on the forms a lot less.I can’t speak for everyone, but for me, the juice just stopped being worth the squeeze to the most part.It’s mainly dominated by newbies,  venders , imposters , and a few exceptionally strong personalities that can get mighty aggressive if you don’t agree with them. if a person comes on here and ask a question  instead of it being answered if there’s people that don’t like the particular technique then all they want to do is attack others that’s kind of gotten old.  

My ideal is more in the 4-5X, but for the specific market a premium is fair, and for <7yr of age, that's what brings me to 7-8X. 10X+, no thanks, juice isn't worth the squeeze. 

Beyond that, adding popular amenities that your competition doesn't have is a low hanging fruit. 

At first I was bummed that I won't ever be able to afford something like that, but then the juices started flowing..