Ask for the company’s US DOT numberBelieve it or not, there are hundreds of moving companies who lack something as basic as a license to transport belongings from one state to another.

Odds are when you're building that income property you want a floor plan that's pretty basic as well as "standard" finishes.

I'd like to not address extra principal payments, as they were not part of my original question, and in order to keep things as basic as possible.But your response does lead me to a separate question about principal pay down:Say that I put $100k down on the purchase of a $400k rental property, and have a starting mortgage balance of $300k.

To get to this level (although still relatively basic) as a newbie just reading on BP would have taken much longer because of the time spend filtering out opinion and misinformation vs. fact, etc.

Something as basic as energy costs run through all products.  

On a $80k property with even 5% rent to purchase price ratio, your gross annual profits aren’t that great in total and can be wiped out with one unexpected event like a furnace or sewer line or an eviction/vacancy or even something as basic as a water heater clapping out and leaking everywhere (there are a boatload of uncontrollable variables when dealing with low end rentals), so 5% on paper often ends up being 0% or worse and you’re just suffering the brain damage of managing a low end rental for nada.

That'll be pretty cheap and a lot easier than retrofitting.If I was buying new construction it would rub me the wrong way that the builder considered something as basic as coax cable to be a negotiating point.

FYI my lease also states that tenants are responsible for any fines which result from non-compliance with municipal codes. i.e. they don't cut grass for 3 weeks and I receive a fine from the city.I'm sure many will disagree with this approach but I don't see the point in paying out of my own pocket for something as basic as cutting grass.

Just to keep things as basic as possible on my first deal, is there anything to stop me from simply going to a local REIA meeting, networking with a wholesaler to scoop up a deal they want to market, and then networking with a private lender to fund the deal as my initial steps?

With 2 units it shouldn't take you more than a few minutes if you've been tracking your income in something as basic as a spreadsheet.