Tenants generally take bad news or unfavorable decisions better when it's through an intermediary. 

You also have to assume the terms of the lease (rent rate, end date, unfavorable legal clauses) when you buy a property occupied. 

High crime, poor tenant pool, crappy schools, unfavorable laws, and ridiculously high taxes.

If you want the most experience be prepared to pay for it in reduced economics, higher fees and unfavorable terms.

For those of you that have done this, do you think it will be unfavorable for future tenants that my boyfriend and I have 2 dogs at the property.

Having already 3 mortgages we are wondering if our DTI ratio is going to be unfavorable if we take out the HELOC for the next investment down payment.

Hey Mathew,Start with multi-family if possibleRun the number's FHA vs ConventionalAvoid high crime areas/unfavorable locationsTry local bank/mortgage broker-More flexible.Realtors- ask/look online if there's any sign of commercial/investor interaction.

Although they compared it unfavoribly to a duplex next to us that I consider not as nice as ours.  

The neighborhood had been trending in an unfavorable direction and the property had been sitting for a few months so we decided that renting it was a smart play. 

Local banks are known to be inconsistent on what their lending sweet spot is.We looked into B2R when they first came to the market and the terms to us seemed like not the best option at the time but we have been considering similar more flexible products.With lower interest rate portfolio loans we also have prepayment penalties, unfavorable release causes, and we almost always pay a point or two anyways up front.