Good afternoon, I am new to real estate and investing.  

This consideration may be worth it in terms of approaching local banks or credit unions with an understanding of real estate investment because they are generally flexible in offering loans compared to national lenders.

Plus, since 2013, the average annual rent growth and appreciation have been 8% and 10% respectively.In further discussions with this couple, they expressed their desire for both strong rental income and the tax benefits of investment real estate—advantages that are only available with properties in our target market segment.Additionally, their desired retirement home features and the characteristics of a good rental property were completely misaligned.

Is that because you don't know what your Real Estate goal is?

Get a good real estate attorney and have them help you navigate this.

The only real difference is you'll need to purchase flood insurance on the property during the project and all good lenders will make you do this to insure your risk is mitigated.  

But they probably have to diagnose their problems first.So what is the real reason 95% of the people fail in as real estate investors?

Either way, if your real question is whether or not I can "afford" to buy another rental with this strategy going on the answer is yes.

The real value of an agency should be in reducing your workload, not adding extra oversight.On a related note, having worked in this field and provided these services myself, I can confirm that the pricing you mentioned for cold callers is too high.

Each jurisdiction is different, but typically include a substantial deposit due same day up to full price deposited that day.