Kudos to you for doing something to create a secondary income stream. there are 5 income streams in RE rentals, possibly six if you do things a certain way.The reality here is your model (buy box) is suffering from too high an entry and too high a cost of capital.

Just be transparent with the sellers that you are licensed and for good grace recommend they use a realtor on their end, although not necessary. 

Just keep in mind the process can take a little longer since you’d need to work with contractors and follow FHA’s requirements.4.Your End Game: Whether you’re planning to stay long-term, rent it out, or sell once the work is done, it’s important to have your exit strategy mapped out.

You must work at least 750 hours per year in a qualified RE business.So most people who have high-earning W-2 jobs outside of real estate won't qualify.But the unique thing about RE pro status is that even if you don’t qualify but your spouse does, you can both file jointly and claim the losses from your RE investments to offset your other active income together.It's an incredibly powerful benefit if you do meet the criteria.

With your strong credit score, high income, and solid investment portfolio, you are in a great position to secure financing for an investment property in the U.S., and as they've mentioned above DSCR is something you might want to look at.

After feeling hopeless, lost and confused about a year ago, I'm happy to report that I'm starting to see the light and the path to wealth after taking consistent action, and am excited to be seeing the progress.Cheers, to constant and never ending improvementArgelI don’t see how it’s possible to generate enough cash flow as a real estate investor starting with no or limited capital.  

Currently, I am looking at Hemlame for local, I tried to use them for an out-of-state investment property, but the cost with an agent would end up far greater than a full-service property manager.The dream option would combine all accounting, bill pay, rent collection, provide eviction services, and maintenance coordination outside of normal hours.

We have a high saturation of rentals that has caused the market to lose money. 

high interest rates have hurt cash flow and long term rentals are still a great investment... they're just not going to throw off rental income in the first few years of ownership.

https://www.har.com/content/department/newsroom?pid=2141Houston Real Estate Highlights for December and Full-Year 2024:
-Following two consecutive years of declines, single-family home sales rebounded in 2024 with 85...