If I had spent every dime on the purchase, I would have been scrambling with these unforeseen expenses.

Pay them well so you're not scrambling at the wrong time.I wouldn't recommend a 'property management' company unless you're talking about 400+ units in a larger metro.

We were sitting in a midst of toys with both kids, now out of school for the foreseeable future, scrambling on our laps and pulling at our hair (they’re 4 and 2), wondering if we just made an insurmountable mistake.

She can focus on our kids, not scramble for work, and has a full cash flow raining in.

The proverbial bag of keys at closing wasn’t proverbial, it was our reality.A few days before closing one of the units went empty, so one of our first acts as new landlords was to scramble to find new tenants, which started one of our first ‘learning opportunities’.

At some point in time, everyone runs out of their own capital and must rely on external sources if they wish to continue and build their book, however should always have some in reserve so they're not scrambling to close a deal.  

@Dion DePaoli  out of sheer curiosity this morning I listened to a pod cast that interviewed the owner of Paper source I think it is @Bob Malecki  Bob said it was a good listen .the gentlemen being interviewed says that he has been buying notes since the mid 80's which of course I am sure he has.then he made what I thought was a pretty if not strange but unique statement.. the Kids interviewing them asked how he hands his foreclosures on his NPN... his answer was well " in 30 years I have only foreclosed once"  the kids were then scrambling as they did not expect that and of course its sound like they are personally buying distressed notes in Cook county and we know how tough that place is.

I can assure you they do not net $10,000 a month and have to scramble for every dollar every month.

What you are talking about is here say and third party speculation.You need to get direct confirmation of the loan specifics and the terms.If you don't and you do all this work on the front end only to find out this financing won't work you have wasted a ton of time.I have seen many times where people get into a deal based on not locking down the funding with the specifics.They then find out a few things about the loan (criteria) where it won't work or they can't use it.Then they scramble for months trying to find a loan that works to no avail.The financing is one of the most important pieces in a deal.

I want to fight for it, but I don't think being in a complete scramble is a way to impress potential private lenders....