For management, self-managing saves costs and teaches valuable skills, but a property manager is essential for out-of-state properties or scaling your portfolio.

@Sebastian Nadal for background checks, I use stessa/rent prep that’s available to us through biggerpockets tools.

Lauren Lauren, there are hundreds of syndications (and crowdfunding deals which are essentially the same as syndications but are available on the Internet) available each year.

I host a group for midterm rental operators and I had 2 people in last week's meeting essentially say the same thing.

What tools or strategies are you using to stay ahead of the game?

Essentially though you need to go off-market.

I essentially present to them my numbers of what I can redo the property for, and they loan me 80% of the ARV basically no questions asked except for an appraisal.

Tools that I see to analyze deals: Zillow, rent websites, craigslist what other tools do you recommend?  

There are a ton of tools and resources that not a lot of people know so doing some YT watching and their training helps immensely. also, happy to answer any questions you might have on set up / operations.

Hey @Dalton Foote - I highly suggest  using a renovation loan and house hacking a multi-family if that is possible with your current life circumstances.The 203k and homestyle renovation loans are just amazing products and drastically help you reduce your risk, in my opinion, because you are able to leverage the cost of the entire renovation with such a low down payment loan.We work with a lot of clients who use these products in Chicago, and no matter what, in the long term, they gain great equity.If you aren't able to house hack - the process is essentially the same, but just with more money down with hard money or conventional construction loan.