My question was: Do you rely on a co-signer to relieve those concerns and essentially replace the tenants bad credit, or in what situations would you use/allow a co-signer?

In the right short-term situation where you can buy them out quickly by refiing the property as you suggest I think it works well but those deals are very hard to find for people with deep experience and connections in that local market so for someone with no experience and no local knowledge it's going to be nearly impossible.

The concepts of home and hearth form a deep, integral part of human psychology.

A lot of the members i feel would tell you to take that money and deeping your knowledge instead, in the end its up to you. 

Hello to this great community, I'm glad I finally found a community around real estate.Well to introduce you, my name is Stelios 32 yo from Heraklion, Greece(Crete Island), married with 1 kid.As for Real Estate, right now I'm working on buying 2 studio apartments in my area(Heraklion).According to my newbie research in the area, the market in my town must be right now in phase 1 but I'm not 100% sure, to be honest.Bureaucracy alone is one hell of work in my country and I already work 3 months on fixing papers, waiting for tax systems to unlock so we can get some tax papers needed and much more things...Well to consider numbers, the 2 apartments are in the center of my town and they are both sold at the deep discount of 23600€ right now if you ask me this is a very rare price.

It may take some searching, it is likely to be a few levels deep.

Show me your capex plan for the life time of the investment.Here is what I sometimes ask an overly excited out of state investor: if it would be that great, why do you think the seasoned local guys with the deep pockets are not all over it?

Be sure to vacuum out your kitchen drawers and shelves for tell tale signs of mice during deep cleaning of your unit. 

., I know you're starting out shallow but this could turn into the deep end of the investing and 1031 pool real quick. 

It’s pretty deep and will put a lot into perspective.