As long as you can afford/stomach/hold your nose at the moderately higher mortgage for 12-18 months, it should make far more financial sense to just eat that higher mortgage cost and refinance later into a rate for the long-term.

As a few have said here put your nose in books, go to meet ups, research the forms and ask questions.  

It very much depends on housing type and price point.Luxury apartments in Nashville have taken a nose dive due to massive over supply Affordable single fam and small multi fam are still renting quickly.

I do understand the risk here to the landlord / owner if housing prices take a nose dive in the area. 

There are enough businesses that cater to people with bad credit that they can survive, although they pay thru the nose for those services. 

Leaving raw chicken in refrigerator, & they shut off the fridge... no notice,, odor reported,, had to enter and then found it.. just so you know.. you restart the fridge first and then get nose plugs.Raw chicken in washing machine... no notice odor reported.. this was bad..Crap in washing machine.

I have no desire to tango with the IRS and like to keep my nose clean, but am exploring data and options as I consider what routes to pursue going forward in real estate as well as what resonates best with me. 

if not their nose is not to the ground.

After this deal, that is still faithfully paying, i remember looking at some turnkey deals and really turning my nose up at them thinking the exact same thing "why would anybody to this for $150 a month" here is why i have changed my strategy to a turnkey that may pay 10% ROI versus a virtually no hassle note investmentDownside of notes:-Vacancy on Money.  

Not many are building new in this climate and the cash equity players want to large of a share to inject capital.The other thing is there are so many fractured projects you can buy from banks and re-purpose for a fraction of replacement costs.Material costs are stable but labor is cheap right now for construction.In my area usually they just set up an LLC for the project with a JV equity agreement.