Most people who have seen someone go through a lawsuit tend to really want additional layers of protection, while those who have not seen how utterly frustrating lawsuits can be will often lean toward a higher risk profile.

Zillow has proven to be an utter failure. 

No the property won't appreciate much, if at all....but when the next real estate correction comes, the property won't go down in value much either,...and even if it does, so what...you're still cash flowing because the last time I checked, very few landlords have ever uttered told their tenants, "The real estate market is starting to do under a little so I want to LOWER your rent."

To my utter surprise, my CPA didn’t allow me to deduct any of my real estate expenses from my W2 income although he deducted expenses from my online distribution biz without any issue.

If that's true, and you want to be a REI, you need to erase that phrase from your mind...and never utter those words again. 

It must enter somewhere else, but it remains utterly confusing to me.  

What those words actually mean is utterly irrelevant, higher risk of buy-back = higher risk loan = higher rate.

Cashflow expressed as dollars doesn't care how much you've invested, it has no percentage aspect to it and is utterly subjective.

Utterly ridiculous request.

I consider myself to be under one year from beginning to obtain my first property, and therefore a complete and utter newbie somewhere in the beginning of the dunning-kruger graph.