We spend a lot of time on the reference calls, probing the landlords with a lot of questions designed to get them to open up about the prospective tenants (and their friends and relatives).  

When a tenant moves out, transfer the deposit back to Checking so it's ready to apply towards expenses or refund the Tenant.If you end up with excess funds in the Checking account, I recommend you transfer it to a third account designated explicitly for future investments.

this is somewhat true. depending on the size of the "skeleton". what we found from being in renovations for 8 years and new construction for the last 5 years nationally is that what actually makes the money is design, entitlement, land acquisition, etc. you can pull every lever in new construction. it's more active and you have all the control. if you don't make money it's your own fault. talk to any lender who looks at deals they would agree. banks prefer ground up at the regional level who see deals than existing renovations.

Quote from @Drew Sygit: @Yanting Wang many investors are buying, "build to rent" properties.They are all being told that in buying a new construction property, they shouldn't have maintenance issues for 5-10 years, which will increase their cashflow/profit.Well, tenants have a way of breaking things, not taking care of problems and letting them become maintenance issues, and this is on top of the fact that most new construction properties require several warranty repairs by the builder in the first 12 months.As others have pointed out, you must live in the property for the first 12 months for an FHA mortgage or take your chances with committing mortgage fraud. do a new construction multifamily don't buy a single family for BTR the numbers are garbage. density is the only win for economies of scale, micro units as well. small, well designed multiple dwelling properties are superior. 

Sorry to hear that my tenant yelled at you for having a garage party during the week, but you are all adults, please go talk to each other.

The data help with the science part, but the art comes from your design vision and connections with people in market who can give you information about the areas where you are interested in investing.I have used a lot of tools, and right now I am using AirDNA and BNBCalc to get different data driven views on properties.  

I would highly recommend hiring a designer for that one, even if it's just a virtual option.

CD's are designed to lag inflation, are they not?

And focus more on your Kitchen, Bathroom, Flooring and Paint (inside and out) for better bang for your buck on your ROI.As an Interior Designer, I've been working with realtors remotely to help update properties prior to listing. 

I'm a licensed agent in both markets, licensed general contractor in columbus and soon to be miami, I travel to capital markets and the highest interest is in ground up construction and purchasing of entitled sites. 1 million is light for downtown but you can get 8-12 story sites for that that you can put high density on. phenomenal opportunities. best market in the country. you can sweat equity by doing the zoning meetings, helping on design, etc.