Commercial banks like to see low leverage and they love paid for assets :)But if your W 2 and a mom and pop land lord getting your normal debt those are all computer driven formulas and there is not a big focus on balance sheet.

We own a flooring business, and I can tell you that the majority of the time your local mom and pop store will be cheaper than the big box stores.

If you're a single mom with student loans, a car payment, and living paycheck-to-paycheck, then $20,000 would be devastating and a reserve is critical.

If her mom calls (assuming she wasn't on the lease), tell her she wasn't on the lease and you are not talking to her...then hang up and also block her calls. 

Fellow Mom and house hacker here in North Jersey.

I joined this forum a while ago because my mom is a biggerpockets member. 

I have a tax question / real estate professional question.I myself have a W2 job and my wife is a stay-at-home mom (no income).

My guess is you and I agree that in the "mom and pop" space (1 to around 50 units) there are deals to be found regardless of timing.What @Deshen Tang is referring to in his comment here is my decision to sell 3,000 of my 4,000 apartment units 3 years ago, just months before the market for commercial multifamily collapsed and prices fell 30-40 percent. 

There are so many mom & pops who do manual rent collection, and whose goal is to stay at 100% physically occupied!

Mom and popIf you want in-person training and offices and more camaraderie, bib box like KW, Coldwell Banker, etc are good options to start (you will leave after one year).If you are mobile and doing a lot and want to work freely, but have a ton of online support, cloud brokerages are great and have better splits like eXp and Real.