It was the end of August. We spent about 6 months working on a deal. Got it under contract. It looked like a home-run. $18M purchase price. 104 doors. Great submarket in Phoenix. Numbers lined up. We toured the property in person, walked every building.  Everything looked good. But during due diligence, we found out the roofs the seller said were "brand new" weren't.  They were shot. Full replacement needed. That changed everything. We went back to the seller and asked for a credit to cover the cost. They said no.  We tried to make it work, but at the end of the day, it just didn't make sense. Moving forward would've meant putting our investors' capital at risk and hoping we could make up the difference later. That's not how we operate. So we walked away. Was a tough pill to swallow.  We'd spent hundreds of hours on that deal and paid for all the third-party reports.  But it was the right call.  Sometimes protecting capital means walking away from a deal you really wanted. Here's what that experience reminded me of: - Don't fall in love with a deal. Fall in love with your standards. - Due diligence isn't just paperwork. It's how you protect your people. - And when in doubt, choose discipline over emotion. We lost some time and money on that one, but honestly it made us sharper. Our process is tighter, our team's stronger, and our conviction in what we stand for is even clearer. Sometimes the best deals are the ones you don't close.