I understand equity and cash-flow are related, but what I mean is that I don't need the cash flow right now as much as I'd like to build a strong portfolio that can cash flow even more later on.I've owned a single-family rental for 4 years, but on mulitple fronts I felt like I've done a poor job self-managing it, so this Fall I picked up the Turners' book on managing rentals and that's what led me here to Bigger Pockets online.

My greatest pain point is not that the deals failed, although that certainly adds salt to the wounds, it's the poor communication, false narratives, chasing (almost begging) for updates, lack of full disclosure, the smoke and mirrors, etc.

Insurance, bank accounts, credit cards, etc.You are probably making your life more complicated and expensive than it needs to be.

Several things to consider: 1) One of the main purposes of segmenting your assets into separate LLC's is so that your personal net worth or equity in other business ventures or properties isn't exposed, so unless you have a high net worth or a lot of equity in a property, it might not be worth bothering going the separate LLC route, especially when it restricts your financing of the property.  2) Most any commercial financing you get from a local bank for a small property is going to have recourse anyhow and require that you sign a personal guarantee, so you're still personally on the hook to the bank even in the case of a commercial loan.  3) If you're a newer investor and buying a deal that's tight on cash flow, or if you don't have a ton of cash sitting in the bank already, your greatest risk factor as an investor is your investment failing economically due to poor financing terms or not operating the investment properly, not because you get sued. 

I am just defending the poor “Covid syndicators” who are doing things right. 

Policy will not impact the market for a while, even a $25k first-time home buyer credit will need some time to work through the system.

.* Our agents met and we learned that the lowest they'd go was $510 because of a HELOC* We offered $520K with $10K seller credit to be used for closing costs.

An STR that is poorly managed may leave the PM without his or her portion of the income, but it may set up the owner to lose the property if that cash flow was needed to pay the mortgage.

To avoid going through the same poor experience, keep reading.Even if someone gives you a referral here, do NOT make the mistake of assuming that the PMC will meet your expectations, just because they met the expectations of the referral source.In our experience, the #1 mistake owners make when selecting a Property Management Company (PMC) is ASSUMING instead of CONFIRMING.It's often a case of not doing enough research, as they don't know what they don't know!

If the security deposit is not going to cover the the water bill or damages, try to scare him into covering the balance by hinting at sending him to collections and it will appear on any future credit pulls he may have done.