I might not be well-versed in your market, but that does sound quite extreme.

There are significant sectors of commercial real estate that are very unhealthy. 

After that you substantiate your costs with extreme prejudice.

The amount of people relying on RAFT for first, last and security is extremely common in lower income areas since they are typically living paycheck to paycheck and it is hard to come up with deposit to move into a new place.

@Kristen Ambrose this was extremely helpful!!

If I was your brother getting my REI portfolio started, is there any advice, strategies, links, literature, articles, or people to follow that you would recommend for someone extremely leery of financial risk?

Verifying last 2 years of rentalhistory and income extremely important to find the “best of the worst”.Make sure you understand the Class of properties you are looking at and the corresponding results to expect.

Obviously land and new construction, specifically FHA construction, is not popular these days so it seems to be extremely difficult to locate anyone with sufficient expertise or specialization in this area.

The process of identifying a quality applicant is extremely difficult now with the amount of fraudulent paystubs, bank statements and IDs.

One particular situation with $700k of debt and $2k/month cash flow may be extremely dangerous and another may be low risk.