I appreciate your feedback and though he may be upset with me about it, I am going to make sure we are braking enough to thoroughly evaluate not just how great the numbers appear initially on a deal but how quickly/does it enable us to get to the next deal! 

We also charge a percentage of the 1st month's rent to procure a tenant.

You are the agent procuring sale, and you get your portion of the commission.

One problem you are going to run into now is if you had your cousin go see the property and he or she saw it with the listing agent, the listing agent now has procuring cause, with you as their client, to the commission on the buyer's side whether you choose to use another agent or not.

I’m a veteran, so I used a VA loan to procure my mortgage.

I can afford to put 20% down and get a conventional loan, but should I really be considering an FHA Loan and putting something like 5% down and using the other 15% towards procuring another investment property?  

He also took it upon himself to repair some old equipment for us (parts procured on Amazon) that we were ready to dump as useless & worn out.

How do you differentiate between an owner occupy and an investor during the procuring process??

Are there any resources or best practices when looking to procure such services?

I've been asked by a family friend to invest in a commercial deal in Bensonhurst Brooklyn, NY that they've already procured.