The process for commercial properties is basically the same as residential properties, so it takes work.Again, echoing Dominic, a good investment is a good investment, whether you spent 8 months courting an owner to get them to sell to you, or whether it is on CBRE/Cushman/Marcus/Loopnet or any other brokerage website.  

You are likely overpaying by $5,000.Broker fee of $3,000 and Processing Fees of $2,000 seem out of place...but then again, i never used a broker to get a loan so I am not sure about that.If the broker was able to get you an interest rate or loan product that you wouldn't be able to find on the open market...its high, but likely fair.if you are getting a loan product that you could have gotten by going to a normal bank...seems high and unnecessary. 

They financed 100% of that transaction, and I took on a huge loan - a huge risk for a broke guy like me.

I am currently going to community college as well as in the process of getting my real estate license.

We are very excited to finally have a fully occupied property after about 1.5 years of issues and huge sums money going towards them. 

Sounds like you have a pretty poor security system.Even with a good security system, having a tenant provide ID is the first step in a professional screening process. 

Most of the data processing is done in python and visualizations are done using the bokeh plotting library.Drop me a message if you are interested in learning more!

From day one I treated my involvement in real estate as a real business.This means, I had an advertising budget, a lead generating and follow up process, a back end process and money source and above all an experienced mentor.  

That route might save you some money, but it would require a bit more of your time to find the right team and manage the process.

Their videos, webinars and web content have been a huge help in presenting what the concept of shared ownership looks like in real life.