They specialized in concrete tilt up, but did a lot of time and materials work for a self made real estate tycoon who owned a lot of Federal Way.Along the way I got my CPA license and practiced in several differing sectors including doing some work with low income housing projects.As far as my start in RE, it was with buying my first personal SFR and later moving to a new residence. 

We are a boutique firm in Chattanooga and every agent in our firm is personally involved in either real estate development, owns investment properties or flips homes. 

Personally, I believe it's preferable to have stricter requirements and wait for a qualified tenant.

I'm based out of Raleigh and personally own rental properties in Fayetteville, Benson and Clayton and could offer some friendly advice and help out with your journey. 

The only person willing to lend me money was Paulie—a guy who charged a point a week and always had a baseball bat within arm’s reach.

I don't personally care about checks anymore so that wasn't an important feature for me. 

I think if you leverage 70% of it you’re going to seriously cut into your cash flow and personally if I was going to have $7M in debt I’d prefer it to be spread over several projects built slowly.

NOTE: an aggressive attorney can still track you down.LEGAL PROTECTION: By placing your assets in an LLC, you legally separate them from your personal assets.

I was implying about the type of person the original poster is.

Being a normal person and giving someone a heads up has not bit me, yet.In addition to what the law requires, I always shoot the tenant a heads up either via text, call, or email.If they are mostly responding to email, then shoot them an email.Emojis and gifs work wonders in today's day in age.