. $375k speaks to me of a Texas house, and that'd put you at minimum $2500/mo payment and therefore raising those numbers a lot more.

Couple takes on this: Generically speaking, yes it often does make sense to increase your loan amount for monthly savings. 

For someone that's not as conservative, or a different view on the cycle, they might have a different opinion than me on all of this.2) Sponsor quality check: (takes about 45 minutes per deal)I believe that a great sponsor can take an average looking deal and make it great, and that in mediocre sponsor can take a fantastic looking deal and make it bad (especially if there is a severe recession).

I've got two new roofs going as we speak.

I have never been able to find quality leads cold, calling or driving for dollars.

Values drop, sometimes drastically, rents go down as quality of tenant declines; cost of operstimg properties increase, and governmental interference, especially in the form of rent control, can slash values and profitability severely. 

Marci, can you provide some direction as to where on here or who I could speak with in order to learn more about RE investing? 

@Abel Eskinder since you're out of the country, you'll probably want to give some thought to our copy & paste info below:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a Class A property in Class D area, what quality of tenant will you get?

My recommendation would be to partner with Realtor for referrals so you can spend your time on what you do best.Either way, with your criteria being so specific, you'll likely end up with quality leads and an additional income source!

You need the ability to do something with those opportunities doing rehab work and you need to be able to execute with professional quality property management. 4.