Once it's rented, use that rental income to help offset your DTI, which may help you qualify for the second property sooner.Partner with Investors: Team up with someone to split costs and lower your personal DTI impact.

The challenge was balancing the relationship between landlord/tenant and a personal/friendly relationship.

I'm assuming you're referring to investors that provide all of the funds for your flips? 

Explore my personal favorites, Set For Life by Scott Trench or The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey, for invaluable financial insights.3.

Personally, I started my investment journey with multifamily properties before moving into single-family homes.

Not a lot of our competitors offer this but it's something we can consider (but for us, it can't be in a rural area, the loan amount must exceed $150k, if we're using PadSplit income (or STR/MTR income) the max LTV is 75% and the down payment must come from your own funds). 

Avoiding accessive PM fees (personally I recommend most people self-manage)These will eat away at your ROI.

I personally hate them and think they are little more dust magnets but will add some if crucial. :) 

We will shop for used appliances where we can when we need one… or pick up used cabinets if we can, or search eBay for something smaller,  but going to the extreme of personally shipping something big in internationally for one-off renovation needs seems like a stretch of reasonable.Just like you mention, the number of unknowns would not seem to be worth it to me.Just my 2 cents.Randy  

I purchase my personal investments to maximize their equity and hold long term.