Also never pay any upfront fees and go with a trusted lender who closes through a title company. 

SO expect to pay a premium based on what the potential value of the building can be once maximized and stabilized.

Use Real Estate By the Numbers as your guide, make sure it tracks the loan pay down and depreciation and have all of those numbers pour into a Schedule E.

Rewey: Your Comment: "the ultimate solution is to pay it off if it gets called due."

With average rents in Charlotte hovering around $1,800 to $2,000, that means an average agent fee of just $190—if the management company even pays the showing fee.I understand that this may vary by market, but in mine, I don’t see agents being incentivized to work with renters.

One of our residents was robbed outside of this property and we ended up paying for the resident to move out and sold this property.

For example, in my state PA there is an inheritance tax and many TAX auction properties originate from people passing away and the heir(s) not taking control over the estate and paying those property taxes.

Right now you have $1,000 in cash flow that can be used to fund other projects (seed money), pay you in profit to supplement your lifestyle, or fill in any gaps for underperforming properties.  

So, perhaps hiring a couple day laborers to help them move or even paying the 1st months rent on a storage unit would be better.

Primary home is a little easier but for FHA and other programs it requires 12 months title seasoning.There is something called delayed financing that if you purchase a piece of land and pay for the home "All Cash" without a mortgage you can get up to 80% LTC.