There are also others who assist in teaching you DD.Another route is to find a broker-dealer who invests in alternative investments like real estate funds as they will have done a lot of DD on the sponsor as well. 

., etc. for example finding cash flowing investment properties which meet your ROI goal of 9% is NOT HARD heck almost every state (and likely every state) has a market which will achieve that but what does 9% mean without a dollar value if 9% is = to $200 or more okay that’s okay but if 9% means $25/mo. or alternatively if 50% ROI means $25/mo. doesn’t really matter much since although labor differs from area to area it doesn’t differ that much and also doesn’t really leave much room for error — so your minimum accepted ROI should also be couple within a minimum accepted $$ value (cash flow) and other minimums as well (i.e. min. equity, property types, property classes, etc.)Lastly as I mentioned achieving a 9% ROI is not hard and is achievable in every state; the HARDER part is to 1) achieve that AND 2) achieve 10-20% min.equity on the buy in or ARV AND 3) meeting your min. $ value AND 4) buying in a good/stable neighborhood/market AND 5) buying with some type of upside AND 6) etc. etc. etc. —- Again I’m not saying you have to do these things; it all depends what type of investor you are and what you are looking for however it is important to understand that if you shift the responsibility of either identifying the invest property or managing or any other aspect there WILL be a trade off — in this case the turnkey company has delivered on your goal of 8-9% ROI (projected... so TBC) and in return you have traded some of the other benefits of investing in RE for the convenience of not having to do much more than to look over the properties they have sent you and funding it from the comfort of your home, office, etc. ... again if this is the goal then you are on point but if the goal is to also partake in ALL of the other benefits of RE then you should understand that and not be surprised that it’s not a ‘stellar’ investment that checks all the boxes.

Quote from @Phillip Austin: There are two alternatives to a security deposit, which I speak about in my book.

great alternative to small time investors with limited capital.. doing 20 though would be quite a bit of work.. selling coaching has basically zero liability when you start to manage investor capital your liablity goes up a ton in the unlikely event of a water landing..

Ongoing construction projects valued between $26 billion and $30 billion fuel employment opportunities.

Take advantage of the lower downpayment programs early on and once you are tapped out of conventional loans, I would consider alternative financing. 

In a pricier area, or if you’re banking on a perfect scenario, that cheap credit can suddenly get very expensive.I’m curious... if you went down this route, what kind of safety nets or alternative strategies would you have in place in case that perfect timeline doesn’t pan out?

If you're looking to househack again, then the conventional 5% down is a very viable alternative to the 3.5% down FHA option. 

They are not alternatives for the same goal. 

Sometimes the items are not a deficiency but merely a recommended alternative way to complete something and those can normally be talked away without even making them into the report.