If you do decide to allow an inspection, just keep an eye out for a few things: make sure they’re serious about the purchase and not just fishing for information, and try to get a sense of their intent.

We have been keeping our eyes and ears out there for the past year. 

It's lower than 1.5%, sometimes I price deals out conventional & DSCR, DSCR beats conventional pricing a fair amount of the time.The only catch is the prepayment penalty on a DSCR loan.

If you're new to investing, keeping an eye on property taxes and HOA fees in this area is also key. 

I’m just starting out as a bird dog, so I’m always keeping an eye out for distressed properties that could work for BRRRR, whether SFH or multifamily.

And then, there is the true catch-22 with gurus, which is: the people that I would want to teach me are very likely too busy and too successful in real estate to be spending time educating competitors.  

So multiple eyes and local expert providing local cost and input on lifespan.Here is an example that has a part that is more expensive in my market than other markets (unlike most parts that are the same everywhere, so in this case your cost should be significantly less due to both cheaper part and cheaper labor): $1600 40 gal water heater installed (this is good price for a plumber, a little high for a handyman) with expected life of 12 years (i have some that go 20 years and some that die in less that 10 years (mostly rheem die in less than 10 years), 12 years is fair life expectation

I'm just glad someone taught me this when I was started out- Garret Sutton first opened my eyes up to it, and then I started a relationship with a stellar SEC attorney in Denver. 

It was great catching up with you Sam!

Does anyone else incorporate these into their strategies?