BTW: most owners that have hired a PMC, don't want to speak with you, much less meet with you in person to hear a hyped-up sales pitch.Also, you want to do rental arbitrage - so, you will need to be properly licensed to manage properties you do not own as required by your state & local laws.- why would an owner want to do business with someone NOT properly licensed?

I was one of the fortunate ones that was able to get out of the contract and after all expenses (forfeited deposit, legal fees, holding costs, etc) lost less than $20k.  

Same for 2-years of job/income stability.Tenant Default: 10-20% probability of eviction or early lease termination.Section 8: Class C rents usually meet program requirements, proper screening still recommended.Vacancies: 10-20%, depending on market conditions and tenant screening.Cashflow vs Appreciation: Should cashflow immediately, at the lower end of relative rent & value appreciation.Class D Properties:Tenant Pool: Majority of FICO scores under 560, little to no good tradelines, lots of collections & chargeoffs, but should have no convictions/evictions in last 12 months.

Do you mean it would need an architect because that's required by the jurisdiction, or because the project itself would need an architect's expertise?

Have a plan for marketing, operating expenses, and scaling without overleveraging.

A STR is a completely different animal in my opinion, in that it requires more work and much more compromise, but financially is worth the effort. 

A DSCR loan is going to require more down, have high fees at closing, a higher interest rate, a pre-payment penalty, and will require you to have cash reserves that you likely don't have at the moment.

If you ask the manager to justify a fee and he starts hemming and hawing, move on or require them to remove the fee.

If the property does not require an extensive rehab and just needs cosmetic repairs then a standard landlord dwelling policy in most cases depending on the carrier.

You can put a mortgage into a "trust: without triggering a due on sale but again contacting your bank/lender is the best route to avoid any issues.Some banks/lenders or servicing companies change guidelines and even a trust may require other paperwork but the attorney usually facilitates that to be safe.