A balanced approach could be to continue paying down your mortgage while slowly exploring and investing in other markets if the numbers make sense.

You may not even need an Electrician, a good Handyman could do that....How much money are we talking about here?

So I am looking to see if anyone has ideas about what options I should consider to gain more experience in real estate investing as I get my finances up to make my first purchase.  

The 1099 will reflect the amount of money that you sent to the owner.

We run into this especially at out parcels in grocery anchored centers, and our users generally can't make a ground lease work for the business case so the next best thing does tend to be the BTS or we often do Reverse BTS deals where the majority of the building design and management etc is done by the tenant. 

Are there any common mistakes new investors make when working with brokers, lenders, or contractors?

I could get the same or higher overall ROI by putting my money in an index fund which is 100% passive.Deal #2This seems like a good deal to me at the asking price.

Long-term, new appliances save time, money, and frustration.

Money talks and BS walks.

You can purchase this with a low-money-down FHA loan.