You just illustrated part of the risks of buying from a wholesaler and not using an agent.

While all of this may seem obvious, I have personally encountered all of it in flips in my market, so clearly not every flipper thinks about something as basic as "can my refrigerator door open all the way?".

He comes across like a very basic con artist slime-ball to me, preying on insecure people by acting confident and successful, which people mistake for actual success.

The basic fees on a loan make up too high a percentage on low priced loans which classifies them as predatory.

I e-mailed the city council people and the response I got was basically "We're not allowing more than 250 STR's in our city so get in line".

Expense ratios vary dramatically depending on project size, age and other factors, but basic rule of thumb is the smaller the project the higher the expense ratio's, using a 33% expense ratio for a small facility (less than 150 units) is optimistic, smaller facilities are probably closer to 40%.

Basically I get one month of additional rent for my troubles, and the rent is paid in full throughout (either by them or the new tenant)Am I letting them off too easy?

There are a lot of assets in Columbus that are basically turn key properties, and even if you have some minor renovations (5k-10K)I would recommend trying to go after an interest-free credit card AFTER you are approved and close for your loan.

., basically investor in fund 5 is paying fund 4 investor and so on.

Which at it's simplest basic form is YOU, the landlord, are actively paying the bank so you can own the property, not the bank.