Any time you sell a piece of investment real estate you do a 1031 exchange which lets you use the gain for your benefit.  

Tenant screening is a challenging, but critical piece to being a successful landlord / investor.

But the other piece of this is the loan amount is really small.  

But, in the note business, if your marketing piece is good enough AND (this is key) you are mailing to a QUALITY list of BONA FIDE note holders you should be able to make AT LEAST $2,000 for every $500 you spend if you are brokering, for example.P.S.

The information you get from the internet are pieces here and there, with no continuity between each piece. 

My best piece of advice is to educate yourself first, talk with a lot of sponsors, and underwrite a lot of deals.

Break the job into pieces and pay them after each is completed.

The "home owner" is more like a tenant, in a binding contract to pay a rent for 30 years or cash to own that property, regardless of what is written on a piece of paper called Deed. 

Remember: Insurance companies want you to pay the bill and when it comes to their turn, will do everything they can to NOT pay.I would get clear on that piece before proceeding further.

No unit can be rented more than 2 consecutive years and so on.Another piece to consider is even if the bylaws today allow rentals... this can be changed at any point in the future.