A good contractor is critical—get referrals and check references.

If the change has occurred and buyers are now doing this, surprised not discussed more  You as the buyer is paying for the agents commission one way or another , either by a higher sales price , or by cutting a check to your agent . 

Yep for one especially in the early stages a hard credit pull would not be useful, just have them do soft checks for the time being and opt out of credit solicitation: www.optoutprescreen.com I could be biased... that said typically working with one lender than can help regardless of where you're looking and having a relationship with that will provide the easiest and most cost effective route long term. 

Just want to double check I'm not going to run into any issues.

Make sure you are using the estimated taxes shown at the Stark auditors site to check on them for next year as there are some significant increases coming!  

You need lease and deposit check at closing so the property has to be move in ready not a rehab.

Check out the Straight Up Chicago Investor Podcast. 

Check the setbacks, landscaping and parking requirements for your project.  

I know someone who ahd a loand written at 10% from years ago and now they said a state is requesting more info on the loan because it was above usury laws and they may have to cut a check back to that person.Let me guess, good old Pennsylvania? 

As someone who has read Harry Potter, it seems the best way to get the attention of the landlord is to send a scary looking giant to their home residence with a kindly worded letter.More seriously, I was on the other side of the coin previously where my wife put the ads up under her accounts instead of mine, so I couldn't check them without getting on her phone and I was inundated with people looking to see the property (probably 50 over a 5 day period) and was trying to send semi-personalized notes to each one--and it all ended up being too much to handle and I ended up ghosting or not replying to many people after I found an applicant.