My sister has a decent sized rental portfolio and has seen her cash flow totally eroded over the past 5 years even after refinancing all the properties to rock bottom interest rates during the pandemic due to the tax increases, and many of them are more than 2/3 of the way paid off.

If a lender is not adhering to this common safeguards then that would be my first red signal .

Do agree on the red flags part.

Having had similar experiences in the past, I will add the glaring "red flag" that is visible to me.

I’m in the red hot market of CT and just went under contract today for a duplex near a college.

Insitutional demand in Charlotte made it red hot last year, and there are some large tech companies entering the Raleigh area.

The town of Camp Nelson is in Tulare County which is a “red” county in a deep blue state that is favorable towards landlord and STR rights.

Everyone rocks here :-

I bought with a cash-flow on day-1 and could tolerate two vacancies before creating red-ink, so it's crazy to be penny-wise and vacancy foolish.I know there are those here on BP that harp on hobby vs professional business operations, but there's more to the bottom line than just GSI - - consider the opportunity losses created by vacancies.

Any red flags?