Nothing is better than your own spreadsheets, but the truth is that spreadsheets and tools and programs are the biggest cause of analysis paralysis in the business.

Biggest thing I would do is to build your CORE 4. 

I would just say the biggest red flag here is "anything sounding too good to be true" - whether thats a hard money interest rate well below market, or 100% "no skin in the game" financing, etc. - those are the biggest red flags here IMO

Sorry for the lack of good advice but we are in one of the biggest home sales droughts in U.S. history so it’s just a tough market. 

The 2 biggest fees with a PM company is the % of 1st month rent they take and then of course the 10% average monthly of the rental they pocket.

Walk into your bank and open an account "John Doe DBA Biggest Pockets Around".

There are many threads about the downsides of the Midwest or any market. 

Otherwise, an employer is legally not allowed to share worker information, so we have a Verification of Employment (VOE) form we send with applicant's authorization signature.The biggest challenge/frustration is, all of this takes more time and effort - which costs a PMC more payroll!

This was the biggest reha What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

The downside to this strategy is that I would have to pay additional closing costs.