Having the tenant be responsible for something like the first $1000 of each maintenance issue, or $500 can be a big help.

Yes we avoid custom work to help keep cost down. 

Do you have any tips on how to approach and structure deals with private lenders for scaling?

But if you build a solid team and do your homework, it can be extremely rewarding.If you’re interested, I’ve put together a lot of resources on the market that might help—happy to share.

(Assuming it bothers you more than the vacancy and finding a new tenant that pays on time for 3 years. 

They are not that helpful honestly unless you get popular tags like A-frame, OMG or luxe which you can’t just get it through adding descriptions on photos.

I'm surprised more aspiring investors don't turn to this strategy to begin their real estate careers. 

In order to put a property under contract I need to provide proof of funds I know that I can get that from a hard money lender but I don’t meet there criteria for a loan approval what should I do?

Any help or advice would be appreciated.