As a result, I've increased the rent to my standards and past other landlords' standards who are afraid to go past 10%!!! 

A detailed system for each project level and payment plan for work that gets done to proper standards should show the contractor that you mean business.I believe I'd follow the system described by one of the contributors to this discussion, Tom Shallcross a few days ago.

I didn't think it is necessarily a bad thing, just is more of a sales strategy than anything else.why do you think that the concept of investing in real estate with 0 money is an "idea" instead of a real thing. 

Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

Section 8 guarantees part of the rent, which is great for income stability, but the building will have regular inspections to meet Housing Quality Standards (HQS).

I suppose here is a good time to ask you all, the “more expert than me-s” in the thread: on a scale of “5% return standard deviation bond market” to “15% return standard deviation stock market”, where would you put the unleveraged, post expense rental income of a well managed (aye, there’s the rub) SFH portfolio?

Standard offer process.How did you finance this deal?

Rehab to the standard of the neighborhood.

Problem: Not having a mentor - piggybacking on the concept of an accountability partner, most people underestimate the value of a mentor.

Set a reasonable salary for yourself (based on market standards) to ensure a stable income.