The competition for quality properties is fierce.

Then as you scale up they get overwhelmed and stressed and either start charging a lot more, drop you entirely, or (most commonly) the quality of their work degrades substantially.

I buy Mohawk brand and it's really good quality.

It is important to take a long term view and buy quality, it pays off in the long run.

Quality over quantity.

With 25% down conventional (full income verification) even with 2+ units rates should be healthier..I wouldn’t suggest investing on the rate so much as the quality of property and analysis.

That will vary depending upon your experience level, the quality of the property, the cash flow of the property, and the lender's appetite for that type of loan.

Property prices range slightly higher but with a lot better quality.  

I personally like LTR as a strategy since once you attract high quality tenants, it isn't that much work relative to MTR and STR strategies, but the key is you have to look for properties where you can add bedrooms, so you can do rent by room, rent to market tenants, rent to Section 8 tenants, and the more bedrooms that you have the higher rents you will get.How to do you add bedrooms? 

While some feel they have become too commercialized, others still find them useful for learning.The property listings and tools like calculators and rent estimators that can aid in analyzing potential deals.The local meetup groups that allow investors to network and connect in their area.Overall, BiggerPockets is seen as a good free resource for beginner real estate investors to learn the basics, though the quality and trustworthiness of the content is debated, especially after the company was sold.