I think this can be easily solved by sticking to a few banks and building a relationship to get the better rate/fees.

Anytime this has come up in the past the lien was easily resolved by the contractor.

I do like the efficiency of pricelabs in terms of easily monitoring your comps (if you use the Neighborhood tab and load in your comps)

You can pretty easily find a duplex to house hack in a good neighborhood in the $300,000-$400,000 range.

I invested $50k; I received a whopping $125.very disappointed; I could have easily bought another rental or invested in a mutual fund and done so much better.

In any case, you can easily calculate that.Looking at your objective of retiring in Costa Rica, you have two options:1.

Typically they have a side entrance that leads to the basement which can be easily split up with a door/wall.

Logically we keep telling ourselves, we have the experience to easily make the transition but mentally there's a big difference when dealing with 100's of thousands of dollars on a single fam / duplex and millions of dollars on a 20+ unit property.

It is about creating an experience and really focusing on easily accessibility with convenience. 

Good luck on the deal but make sure you know ALL of the costs before you lock it in as it can easily make a great deal look 180 degrees differently.