Hallelujah hallelujah.. lol - I'm going to follow your lead really soon my friend. 

When my company screens a tenant we use the following:1.

For example:Second, under their "About us" link, click on "Management" and you'll see a "Meet the Team" page where there's the following photo/info for this James LaPushner fellow you mentioned (which says he was born in New Zealand):However, if you do a reverse Google image search on this photo, you'll find that it's posted on several other sites, including this one: https://planetaseminarov.ru/people/konstantin-baksht.htmlHere's a photo of him from this page:This page is written in Russian, but if you translate it, it says his name is Konstantin Baksht, he lives in Moscow Russia, and he is the owner and CEO of the international consulting company Baksht Consulting Group. 

He's seen me grow to four units (3 properties) and I'm thinking, there's gotta be a guide or book that would help him just follow step-by-step how to rent out his existing property and buy a new one.

You mentioned the following: "Take a look at what markets you are planning on starting in and make sure it is a growing market where the appreciation is obvious (emphasis added)."

In 2021 we bought the building for $1.5M using private lenders, pushed the occupancy from 50% to 80% occupancy and it appraised for $3.125M, allowing us to pay back the private mortgage.Right now, we are in the predevelopment process of design and piecing together the capital stack for the redevelopment deal, which will be made up of historic tax credit equity, RestoreNY Grant, DRI Grant, etc.

New listing typically get artificially pushed to the top for a short period of time.

Following the shiny object, throwing money at a market you don't know well, and blindly trusting strangers that have a clear profit motive put you in a poor position to succeed regardless of where you choose to invest.

Lease or no lease, you need to follow the timelines that NYS set out from my understanding.

Some items typically needed to qualify for the loan are the following: 1.