Hi Paola,If you are looking to buy another primary, looking to put the property into a LLC, may be changes in your income/job, looking for faster/smoother closing, DSCR could make more sense.

I am not sure what type of real estate investing you're considering, but it sounds like, with your family and busy job, you won't have a lot of time to be hands-on or personally involved. 

Property is in Granite City, tenant lost his job, and has stopped responding to texts and emails. 

I left my job earlier this month with the intent of retiring -- not so sure how that's working out as now I'm interviewing as I feel like I'm not being productive (this is an entirely different beast).  

Thus, I have worked 2 jobs (1  is self employment) for 7 years to fund purchasing a few single family homes locally. 20k is not enough to purchase IMO, that should be your savings AFTER your purchase.

So he can do a crappy job and still get the funds.

Awesome, great job!

Markets, geoglobal conflicts, recession, inflation, jobs can all affect that but time will tell. 

Agreed and I don't see any how investor can go wrong with that one simple task.

What we have is a good spreadsheet with a list of tasks, and as they perform the tasks, I've been paying him via Zelle.