Quote from @Ronald Rohde: Is this AJ's firm? 

Every contact I needed for insurance, mortgage and cleaners were done online, mostly through connections from BP. 

For expenses like utilities, property tax, and insurance, I estimate a 3% yearly increase.However, keep in mind that if you do renovations in the first year, it’s likely you won’t need the full 5% repair allocation for the first or even second year.

I had doubts and still have some but now it sounds like those may have been necessary for their loan program after learning why it's a lower risk and FDIC insured requires that. 

To thrive in real estate investing, you must maintain a firm grip on your finances.

Are most of you including things like property insurance, etc in your CoC calculations?

All the hard money lenders I've worked with in the past (and the one I currently work for) deem an appraisal necessary for risk management purposes to insure AIV and ARV estimates are good.Curious how you'd manage risk without one? 

I don't think it should matter if the deal is seller financed, cash, or hard money; the title search and insurance process should be the same.

Option 2 with second lender is, get an FHA loan at 3.5% and use the concession to buy discount points and bring a 6.2% interest rate down to a 5.4% permanent buy down, putting me at around $3,450.00 monthly PITI and also adding 8k to the top of the loan for mortgage insurance.

Today question is Universal Life Insurance (provider,) I am looking recommendations for companies that work with real estate investor?