Hi Anya, I don't have a property in Mesa but would recommend checking out/posting on Furnished Finder, VRBO and Airbnb (30 + day stays), and Facebook groups to determine pricing and try and find MTR tenants.

Someone who is less risk averse may be willing to wait to see if rates drop more significantly and take the higher rate for now and refinance down the road but for the less risk averse, it's definitely a meaningful conversation and pretty easy to quantify by taking the cost and dividing it by the monthly payment savings to determine a "break even" period to see if that makes sense for the client.Curious to hear others' thoughts on this.

My questions are: How does an agent determine ARV?

I'm not sure how you determined that I only put 3.5% down; I put down 5%.

As others have said, the first step is determining whether you would like to be active or passive. 

@Beth Anderson always work backwards to determine a purchase price.ARV minus profit/equity minus Rehab+10-20% minus carrying costs = purchase offerThis is a simplified example, but demonstrates the concept.

All of the businesses you own come into play when your Solo 401k eligibility is being determined.

I do not wait for others to determine my destiny.

There are lenders that will finance newbies, even at 100% of the purchase & rehab, but if the numbers do not make sense, the chances of that deal getting to the table are thin (especially if the lender wants to help borrowers succeed, not help them fail).The lender's underwriter looks at every deal, but especially the lesser experienced operator's deal to determine what is exposed vs what is the return.

I recommend thinking on these topics to determine the best way to get started investing.