Look at the pictures to evaluate the quality of the materials and workmanship of the comparable sales and align your ARV accordingly. 

1) I think it’s “funny” that not one news article I ever read for the last 5 years had headlines like “Housing at historical record lows!

Would read more about DSCR loans however locking in rates for 5 years would make little sense in this economic cycle where yield curve is normalising rather steeply.

Is this normal?

I suspect very few if any read all the fine print when they invested.. :)

Martel did this in cleveland and you should read those threads as well. 

Trying to dig up your own deals is at least a full time job- the ROI on it doesn't really start to materialize until a year or so in to full time plus efforts. 

This means learn the relevant laws.   

I have REPS by actively and materially participating in my rental property portfolio, and also work as a real estate broker full time (1099 collecting commissions through a single member/purpose LLC) from buildings I sell.My losses from my rental properties (LLC #A) largely offset any federal and state taxes from my brokerage business (LLC #B).

The Fed has this data where it can be viewed over time in a lot of different ways.