Certain money mindsets are useful in different situations and periods in our lives.Let’s try a mini reflection exercise: Were your parents good with money?

My suggestion is that you need to know the business of being a landlord, before you outsource the most important role, screening for tenants to someone who has NO interest in putting top tenants into your place.  

@Joe Funari I understand that trust plays a huge role in an investor-agent relationship.

I guarantee the exercise will bring clarity to what works for you as it relates to where and how to get started.

I'm curious, what role would you play in this potential deal?

So, DSCR will play an important role.

What this exercise might find is:- Contractors willing to communicate and go through formalities of estimating- How hungry the contractor is for work- Which contractors answer your exercise most professionally - Which contractors go above & beyond with thier answers and their own past example work/portfolio- Which contractors accurately estimate material and/or laborOf course if they don't or won't reply, it could also mean they are too good and busy to jump through your hoops -- so they could be great contractors as well. 

The option fee usually becomes part of your down payment, but is lost if you do not exercise the option.

My role was as a Customer Service Manager.

Pretty simple exercise to see what comp rent rates are for the area, that will tell you if the numbers are way out of line or not.