Trying to stay ahead of the game and be proactive. 

This gets you in the game with minimal upfront costs.Covering the Smaller Costs (Inspections, Appraisals, Earnest Money, etc.)Even when using other people’s money, you’ll need some cash for earnest money deposits, inspections, and carrying costs.

Quote from @Nithin Thampi: Is there any site, company person I can pay to analyze a game property from a property management company?

As a Michigan native, I love my Lions, Tigers and Pistons, I train as a boxer, enjoy discovering new local restaurants in my area, and going to local events wether to network or just sit back and watch the game. 

The seller offered seller financing terms later on in the game, and we wanted to pivot to seller financing, and when we did, our insurance carrier said they would no longer issue the policy if the seller was going to hold the note.

For pros/cons of booking.com I would say the following...Pros:-if you use guesty you can sync your airbnb info into your booking.com listing info to ease the set up process-there are more options to check off in the amenities portion of the listing set up, so you can really display the uniqueness of your property-I would wager 90% of self-managing str hosts only list on up to VRBO/Airbnb, which means there are not nearly as many options for people to choose between, which means more exposure for your listing-rumor has it that booking.com just invested a large sum of money into building out their services to provide more vacation home listings rather than hotels.

And I feel that's the majority of people, on BP, in the investing community, and in life.Then you've got the other group.Group B is a small percentage of people who invest to "play the game."

Real estate is a long game, so maybe you do not have the rental rate you want right now, but trust me, the market will level out, and you will eventually reach a point where you are cash flowing.

The mindset is the most important thing in real estate investment.Every problem has a solution, this mindset shift helped me stay in the game for a long time.

I am also the sole provider of a family of five, which has really prevented me from jumping in the real estate game.