What you said are really common misconceptions in regard to parties and damage.

What this narrow group of investors have in common though is they know the market well because they lived there for a couple years.

It's also much less common in the commercial real estate world for sellers to fix things prior to close of escrow. 3) Of the remaining 5 out of 1000, 4 out of 1000 is a hyper conservative estimate for fallout from people getting fired while in escrow, taking out car loans, that sort of stuff.So, yeah, 1 in 1000.

Also, I would also not cross-collateralize the houses if a lender would even do a portfolio loan.On your second question about multifamily, I would not jump to multifamily until you have experienced the common management problems with single-family as the expenses scale with the size of the property as well as the cost of mistakes.I would consider getting Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOC) on each property.

Notably it is common for investors with sufficient equity for a $250-500k HELOC to have low or no first lien balances on the subject property.Furthermore on the target purchase, investors could theoretically have more buyer leverage as a 'cash' transaction and eliminate associated mortgage closing costs and have more investment options as a 'cash buyer.'

I found this by "googling" recon trust na in order to uderstand a letter I received, the language of whichildren is ALSO unintelligible to the common mortal. 

Based on my experience working with real estate investors and property managers, here are some common arrangements for local handymen and maintenance personnel for short-term rentals:On-call basis:Pay a set fee per call-out (e.g., $50-$100 per visit)Hourly rate for time spent on-site (typically $50-$100/hour)Additional charges for parts or materials usedRetainer agreement:Monthly flat fee (e.g., $200-$500) for basic availabilityAdditional charges for actual work performed beyond a set number of hours or visitsPer-task pricing:Agree on set prices for common tasks (e.g., $75 to unclog a drain, $50 to replace a lockbox)I like the per-task pricing as long as your maintenance calls aren't super frequent.I'm also a hard money lender if you're looking at a new deal to get quotes on soon or if you're looking to refinance a property soon!

Find someone who knows the ropes to help you and steer clear of common mistakes. 

Software is a common question on BiggerPockets.

Door count is the worst (commonly discussed) metric in the real estate investing community.