A good deal of preliminary preparation is advised before jumping in.

As more and more clients ask me to recommend property managers for their SFH, Duplex and Fourplex properties, I'm updating my due diligence checklist when comes to what to ask a property management provider:Here are some of the questions I have:Preliminary (Time in business):Operations (Geographical Footprint Of Properties Managed)Preliminary (Credentials / Associations Involved In)Operations (Number Of Rental Properties Managed)Operations (Property Type Managed and Percentage Breakdown Of Each)Preliminary (Personally Invest In Properties Managed)Legal Compliance With Fair HousingLegal (Insurance Carried)Legal (Contract Terms and Cancellation Policy)Legal (Company Sample)Operations (Managers / Staff Employed)Sales (Rental Price Determination)Sales (Vacancy Fees)Sales (Management Monthly Fees)Sales (Company Cancellation Fees)Sales (Miscellaneous Fees - Marketing, Cleaning etc)Operations Specific (Marketing To Good Tenant Base)Operations Specific (Tenant Income Requirements)Legal (Eviction Timeline - When Does It Start?)

A credible lender usually is very thorough and asks lot's of preliminary questions about a property before even considering it.Another red flag is most credible lenders have similar loan programs with slight variances.

The later makes since to me and meets all the preliminary tests but the former just  seems way off.

Even if the analysis doesn't pencil out exactly the way you've set your criteria, I'd wager your projected cashflow is probably optimistic anyway and you'll actually do better in a better location. 

You then need to investigate, by doing some preliminary bookings (not following through with the transaction), on homes that are comparable to what you are looking for. 

@Brandon Stiles you’ve done a lot of the preliminary learning.

I had reached out to a couple of national ads and had received some call backs and was wondering if anyone on the forum has worked with prior, dealt with before or presently working with RENATUS... any advice before preliminary contact would be greatly appreciated. thank you!

The owner has total mortgages of around $75k, and that was the preliminary number the listing agent threw out.

@Eric Huang on the property you sent its hard to tell for sure, but a preliminary search shows just one tax parcel and Single Family zoning.