.• Retirement communities• Syndicates (from initial explorations, little transparency from providers, little oversight - almost leap of faith and trust in provider?)

@Charlie Hardage, how is paying down the HELOC better than paying down the initial mortgage without the HELOC?

Is it better to keep adding equity by doing work on the houses while I'm renting them then refinance to recover the initial down-payment to reinvest into another property or to pay down the heloc?

Washer/dryers are often abused, so there's the initial cost of purchase and the risk of increased repairs.

The replacement shelves were ordered individually, I was charged the initial inspection fee to tell me the shelves were missing, the cost of the shelves plus markup by the PM, and $67 an hour to "install" the shelves. 

Quote from @Milly Owens: You may be right James, then again you would have a hard time convincing Asser...since the program reimbursed him his initial investment of $1,000 and then paid him $10,000 for the lead!

I started by building a 12-door portfolio using the BRRRR method and self-managing initially.

As much as I'd love to rehab the properties to boost the ARV (which was the initial goal), funds are tight right now to do that so as-is is the way for me to go.Absolutely.

@Mario Morales, to echo Bradley, I would say this depends on what you are lacking in your own knowledge base.To some (probably many investors) the agent is simply an initial filter for them.  

I'd be able to put 20% down on each and have money left over for some repairs/updates.It seems like I'd initially take on more stress, less initial return but the long term scalability seems great.