Buy a 5 gallon bucket, one at a time and get the best pricing. 

The STR arbitrage, and no money no experience add no value "wholesalers" fall into the same bucket. 

or simply put a $10 bucket there, and hope to remember to empty it when it's full ? 

In my mind, if you aren’t financially free yet, then 401k and diversification offered by 3 buckets is slowing you down.

Then, any excess cash, you save and start building your alternative bucket of portfolio like rental properties.

My point is that listed properties right now are like a bucket of chum tossed off the coast of Amity Island.  

Baltimore is one of the highest crime cities in the US and it's no accident they have buckets full of houses for $1000. 

When you only have $100 a month in cash flow, and you are banking on cash flow instead of appreciation to make money and lets say a sink has a minor leak, you chose not to pay someone to go fix it and just put a bucket under the sink and forget about it. 12 months later, you have a major water problem that has gone from a $150 issue to a 4k issue, that you still do not have the money to fix.

The whole house is original galvanized steel plumbing--it probably has 1-5 years left, and when it kicks the bucket, you'll be ripping out all that fresh drywall and the finishings in the basement.