I've thought of jumping ship to a firm offering 0% down as a standard product in the line, but it would be helpful for me to know if that sort of thing above is common/normal, or an outlier.

Buy and hold before you can flip them to keep your funds from being drained off or risk going down with the ship. 

I am a starting investor looking to build the resources and relations ship to buy and hold invest myself.

A lot of friend ships have been ruined by not communicating clearly and not putting things in writing.Good luck!

Unfortunately the ship has sailed in the Bronx.

In addition in this area that ship has basically sailed there will always be OREO.. but I am a stock holder in my commercial bank so I get their financials we have not had a default since 2013. 

My feeling is that the ship has likely sailed trying to contact the small regional banks to get these, as the banks already have the relationships with many buyers.  

@James Wise  What was described above is simply life in the rental bizz  no amount of up front screening etc will keep you 100% immune from peoples lives.. as lives change.I had 11 A class ( new builds ) in Jackson MS area.. and by and large they were great I could self manage those ( self being my secretary managed for me).. but even there on brand new 200k homes I had one completely destroyed.. 50k in damage... and luckily the insurance company covered it and went after the tenant for criminal charges... as you know normal turn over damage is not covered with insurance.. then I have owned C class Section 8 with the same tenant for 8 to 10 years.. just like many others.. its one reason I subscribe to the thought process no matter what were or how.. you want some scale if you want to be in the rental business.. however you can do it get to at least 10 doors as quick as possible.. that way one bummer does not sink the ship.

Basically, to justify leaving my comfy corporate job, I need to ROCKET SHIP this real estate career into the 100K plus territory.

He has a mentor ship program I just applied for where he takes half the profit from your first deal.