Especially on a rental property. 

Determine what price you can pay for the property.

I was briefly with realize properties, ERA, and lastly went with Heart and Home.

Quote from @Dawn Harris: We have a STR managed by a property management company.

Looking for help and suggestions- I want to say I have learned my lesson and now know to use a third party to hold funds.This is my first time working with a private lender/family member.

As a sole operator, you have all the policies and procedures in your head and can apply them to many properties without referring to a binder.

@Thomas Farrell if you have any experience managing property/construction projects, I would look in to flipping properties and keeping the once that you see an acceptable cashflow on when finished.

@Blair Ross Jr depends on how much experience you have with investing in rental properties.

Now we are mostly scaling our business with larger communities but I've used many different creative finance strategies including seller finance, private lending, hard-money, collateral from other properties, and lease-options. 

3) How well prepped was your property?