This is a huge mistake new investors make by either trying to outsource the answering process or simply not having a good system in place before they spend money on mailers. 

The great news is outsourcing a team of cold callers will give you more time to focus on hunting more areas to target with your marketing. 

They negotiate the price and whatever it is, it’s a 50-50 split.On the other hand, while you (Will) are dealing with all these little things on 1 deals, I’m finding 5 deals and outsourcing all the work.

I've not explored how a management company would implement the proper controls, but can say that the company I work for has developed a more robust process after one of our out-sourced PM companies embezzled rent payments and security deposits.

It can be a significant expense in upstate New York winters -Landscaping including mowing and snow removal-capital expenditures - if you plan to buy and hold eventually you'll need to replace the roof, water heater, etc. best to put aside a little every month -property management - if you self manage this will just be part of your cash flow, but as you grow your business or if you hate managing you may need to outsource.

Hours per month can be significantly suppressed with a property manager and outsourcing maintenance and rehabbing.  

Mt previous lenders had outsourced the underwriting and that caused a lot of issues because even the underwriter was wrong dead about a lot of things.

To speed things up you might want to consider outsourcing some of the tasks that can be delegated to others while you focus on what you're good at/where you're needed.I'm sure you've heard of the pareto rule: 80% of your success came from 20% of your actions - identify those actions, do more of them, and outsource the rest.Things like prepping paperwork, sending out mailers, setting up home inspections...etc can be outsourced to a virtual assistant, an intern or someone you mentor - you can focus on lining up financing, talking to sellers...etcThe 4 hour work week by Tim Ferriss is a great read on this topic.

See how you can get more done and scale up by outsourcing your marketing. 

For example, leverage a general contractor to help you with rehab estimates, leverage virtual personal assistants to help you field phone calls from leads, build relationships with real estate agents, inspectors, appraisers during your lunch hours and learn as much as you can every day about real estate.In time I believe you will find some areas that you are interested in and passionate about and you will also realize other areas that you don't want to do yourself (you can outsource those tasks).