Feel" the true beat of the portfolio's income and expenses performance before using leverage to speed up the growth of your portfolio.Using cash only will protect your bottom line in scenario's like yours when the properties don't perform as expected as you won't be on the hook to cover the mortgage expenses.Just my bias opinion so take it with a grain of salt.I've also witnessed many finger pointing instances when others get involved.Like a new property manager, realtor, contractor, etc...I've had my share of bad experiences with realtors that threw my company under the bus and got in the investors ear to flog it at any price just so they can make a quick commission.It get's very messy, painful and pretty much turns into a disaster with the investor not knowing who to trust or what to do anymore.Similar to what you post about has happened to me and my company many times and if allowed the opportunity, we do our best to fix and come good.Some loose trust and faith and I 100% understand, but as soon as someone leaves the wing of my company there is not much that we can do because as I mentioned above, everyone else get's involved, has an opinion and the situation get's very messy.Having in-house property management is vital when such a "crisis" arises.I tried out-sourced PM when we first started and it was a disaster.We had no choice other than to bring it in-house.Hated my life for the first 5 years with in-house PM and fast forward 10 years, it has become our "golden goose" and a very well streamlined and beautiful business.From what I've seen and read on the forum and elsewhere it seems like RTR has a good reputation and what you have mentioned seems like a "worst case scenario".I hope RTR will assist you the best they can and all I can say is learn from the experience and don't give up.Do your best to weather the storm and focus on minutia.Don't have regrets and don't spend too much time dwelling on the past.Glimpse into the past to get guidance from what you could have done better and think ahead.Move forward smarter, more experienced and better.Wishing you well and much success with your future endeavors.

I flip 25-30 homes a year and these are just easy things to point the finger when things don't go as planned. 

I have been using them for 2 years and have not had any hiccups yet (fingers-crossed that continues).....with all that said, a good rule of thumb as a responsible owner is that you still need to pay attention to your balance sheet because human nature occurs and some things can fall through the cracks.

@Cody Evans@Sean OToole  Cody this is off topic so OP don't yell at me.. but any one working distressed real estate on the west coast the very first thing they need is Property radar app .. hands down the best tool out there.. we snagged an off market deal last year that has over 300k in equity.Of course we pay cash that helps.. but this tool is super cool the info at your finger tips and it so cheap as to be a no brainer..

@Anthony Finger The same as any other place, it depends on what tenant profile you are looking for.

Fingers crossed this car will last me another 3-5 years.

Thankfully investors are a large chunk of the neighborhood, so fingers crossed it doesn't pass. 

Talk to a lender and your agent to get you pre-approved so that you don't have to go through the process and let one slip between your fingers if the correct deal arises. 

we havent had much luck with co's like RedX or our Title rep providing good contact info , we recently engaged with a co that pulls data for wholesale, as the wholesale crowd seems to be getting through , hopefully that will help for circling prospecting and geo farming; we are starting a circle around our up coming listing, the listing will be priced at $500k and should stay below 600k, it'll be one of if not the least expensive livable detached home near civilization in the county by a big margin ,that should generate some activity; fingers crossed

I'm keeping my fingers crossed in a big way that the Melody Parks development on the far east side will include major retailers like Target etc.