I tried to stay out of the way, but I had to stop several things from being done wrong—spaces between kitchen cabinets that were too small by at least an inch for the appliances to fit, a walk-in pantry being built that was too narrow for anyone but a child to get into.

We are now preparing to foot costly lawyer fees ($10k+ according to our lawyer's experience with difficult cases like this), and likely won't see a cent back since we have so little information about these people and they may not have anything to lose.My heart goes out to everyone who is truly struggling due to the pandemic and are, in earnest, doing their best to be responsible tenants by communicating with their landlords and trying to work things out.

You’ll have to be very lucky or willing to buy a problem child property and/or neighborhood.  

I am new to the real estate game and got my foot in the door by purchasing my first property as a live in renovation.

I'm a new investor shopping in the Cincinnati market, and I just want to make sure I'm starting on the right foot. 

My wife and I have a child as a member on each property(last man standing gets it all). 

I went through the same thing a while back where I ended up with over $100k in debt, overdue mortgage payments and child support to pay.

This is a 2500 sq foot 3 bed 2 bath both sides.

Kudos you've saved and put yourself in a good position to start out on the right foot by house-hacking.  5 years ago my wife and I bought our first and now we have 9 units and have really scaled our passive income stream through those rentals. 

In regard to the best interest rates, the market is pretty fragmented so it's best to check around wherever you are looking to establish your foot print.