This way the contractor isn't running to the store and waiting on anything.

There was a recent webinar, bottom line, it looks like Darryl Heller sold off many of the ATMs, didn't pay the people who put the cash in them, didn't pay the stores that have them on site, isn't providing information to David Zook's team that the court has ordered and is racking up something like $50k+ a day for not doing so...it is a complete mess and seems like there are only a fraction of the ATMs that might still be producing money but the company hired by Zook to get their hands around all of this is running into many roadblocks because Heller's team isn't providing info. 

i agree that a new purchase at 75% equity will typically not have significant cash flow and may even be negative when properly allocating for all expenses.Investing to max equity without reserves is risky and you indicate would result in stress.  

I store some funds in a HYSA as well as lower risk investments.

Again, the BiggerPockets store has some books on this topic, or you can learn about it by watching podcasts, reading blogs, and interacting on the forum.

We don't pay much store to cosigners but when we do get them, we run them through the full application process.

House hacking a 4 plex is a good plan, and you may even consider getting normal financing with 20% down - just have a little more patience to save more to have adequate reserves.

I am very confident that my STR PM would be able to evict an STR tenant that over stayed their reservation in less than a day and likely in less than a couple/few hours.  

But, even if someone was I would imagine the financing terms you can get a mid level furniture store would be much better then a hard money loan anyway. 

Let's grab a coffee.These went on sale during black Friday and figured to share: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Arcade1Up/page/72239652-B330-4...