In return, they will be motivated to get a job and pay back every dime owed while lavishing you with praise.

You will make more from loan pay down, yes you SHOULD have some appreciation.

If it's in the restricted zone (within 31 miles of the coast or 62 miles from an international border, you have the choice between using a bank trust and paying the fees mentioned above or using a Mexican corporation and bearing the costs of establishing and maintaining  the corporation.

If you have large debt with a high interest rate, I would consider paying that off before getting started investing in real estate. 

However, aside from that, I couldn’t find much information about them, and the only online presence seems to be the wife’s LinkedIn profile (though I’ve never met her in person and am just going off her profile picture on Zillow).After submitting the application through Zillow, we attached our income (two months of pay stubs for each of us from our current jobs), work references, credit and criminal background, rental history, and the contact info for our current landlord (who just so happens to be my fiancé’s father).

Please clarify, how many lenders we have "signed up" and how much they "pay" for "leads".

They're less than I pay.

Definitely a lot of growth here as Texas Instruments is investing $29 billion into a development to bring over 3000 high paying jobs to Sherman.

Risks: rates go down and you have to pay a prepay of 2 or 3 %; you have to sell and pay the prepay; rents decline & you can't make the payment like any other type of loan; cost upfront a little more than conventional; need to find experienced broker licensed in the state where subject property sits; servicers are bulldogs. 

A tenant not paying has nothing to do with us either.