Hey @Brad Roche - We do a significant amount of renovation loans (both Fannie May & FHA) here in Chicago and prefer the Homestyle loan only because it's less stringent on the borrow about what they have to repair, and they provide the general contractor a material draw at closing which helps the project start on the right foot.I thought the minimum down payment was 5%.

After all, we're dealing with humans interacting with other humans.

(We are working on a generalized survey to collect info on our buyers/potential buyers so we can make sure we understand who our customers are while trying to dial in their preferences and patterns.)You are doing great things. 

There are a few ways you can handle the renovation which all comes to personal preference.

Through preferred rates and quarterly cash flow, I strive to create multiple revenue streams for my investors.

Ask multiple people on and off BP (preferably people who are no biased). 

With investment properties, most lenders I work with prefer to have an address to work with in order to provide a "soft" quote, which does not include a hit to your credit.

I can do that through charging points, but since I'm getting it at a lower rate than you could as a consumer, I prefer to mark up the rate while still being lower than most others in the market.

Read some books, preferably those written prior to 2015 when YouTube gurus started telling everyone how easy it is to buy 17 houses a year with no money down.Investing is pretty simple if you just follow the process investors were using since the beginning of time.

If there's enough duplexes that it's likely you find one you like in a reasonable amount of time (less than a year), then start looking at them in your preferred area.