My thought ahead of time was similar to you “I want to try these” - thinking I could self install islands of carpet in bedrooms myself and have the ability to patch if needed between tenants.

The ability to go to college on an Esports scholarship is a great opportunity, Congratulations to you and your son!

Hi Eric, You're right it would depend on your debt to income ratio, but buying 1 investment property shouldn't affect your ability to get a second conventional mortgage in this timeframe.

Purchase price: $258,000 Cash invested: $50,000 Purchased this 2 bed 2 bath, 1250 sqft home with a .75 acre lot, this was a good BRRRR property, it has the ability for an ADU/Granny Flat on the right side of the property.

Quote from @Faaz Hafid: There are many versions, but I checked this one: https://crimegrade.org/violent-crime-pittsfield-ma/Crime affects your ability to find quality renters.

Purchase price: $258,000 Cash invested: $50,000 Purchased this 2 bed 2 bath, 1250 sqft home with a .75 acre lot, this was a good BRRRR property, it has the ability for an ADU/Granny Flat on the right side of the property.

Other factors to consider are what you plans are for the future (value add rehab, restructuring, selling the property soon, etc) and whether or not there are any events on your personal horizon that may impact your ability to refi later. 

Then he sends me a bill for 10 hours, but I later see that he unclogged my sink in 5 minutes.

There are definitely pros and cons to each so I figured I would just lay out a few benefits and personal thoughts: Small banks/brokerages:Pros:- Some regional knowledge of the market- Possibility of more creative lending guidelines with bank specific programs- Sometimes they have competitive rates for their areaCons: - weak balance sheet (more strict on some guidelines, no wiggle room, inability to be flexible or grant exceptions because they cannot afford to hold less than perfect loans)- Can't scale with clients to different markets- Usually limits exposure to individual investors (they don't want one investor to be too big of a portion of their balance sheet)- Lack of experience with multiple solutions (tend to have 2 or 3 loan products they sell and are too niche to provide tailored solutions)Large banks/brokerages:Pros:- Large compliance departments that understand individual market guidelines (typically each state has specific lending guidelines that augment the national baseline)- Ability to scale into multiple markets with same lender (licensed in many states)- Impossible for individual investors to "outgrow" a large bank's balance sheet (not concerned with one investor's concentration)- More lending solutions available for different scenarios- Often comparable or better rates given the game is volume basedCons:- Can be more difficult to get fast responses if the bank/brokerage does not have good follow up systems in place (or if the underwriting/processing staff gets overwhelmed)- Bad large banks can feel less like a relationship and more like a cog in a factory (less personal)Overall, I have worked from both and worked with both as a loan officer, branch manager, and as an investor/client myself. 

I was reluctant but agreed to itit's our glue that holds our leads together-- David and Susan have great support, price point is excellent- it will probably go up, training videos (if you invest time watching them) are great and ability to voice, text, campaigns, FB ad integration etc are greatno CRM is perfect-- I miss ability to upload docs to podio lead-- like a lead sheet, comps, etc but that ability is in the workswe process thousands of leads and REI Reply is our CRM of choicehope that's helpful