:superman: I work with a Mortgage Broker who is very upfront about what he can and cannot do as far as helping people get the qualifing loans.I myself, provide some great tips and programs THAT we stand by for addressing your credit concerns.Really to raise your scores, mortgage brokers or lenders can (if they can be so bothered) to help you rescore(rapid rescoring) and get those fico scores at a place acceptable to a lender.I usually term our services, by credit optimization.

What do you include for repairs, are the rents accurate or low for the area, do you need to include renovations to optimize the rent? 

5) I don't know what I don't know...what else should I be asking/knowing to optimize my performance in any given market? 

I love the free market and what will be will be, but its a brutal place, particular with how much optimism is built into the MF space these days, and I hope all the folks who left other careers to pursue this can weather the next market shift and the unhappy investors that come along with it.

After all I don't need to know how my car works to be an excellent driver, I just need to know enough to optimize its performance (that and a great mechanic). 

I believe I can get the property to preform with optimal numbers, which a few properties now are doing with simply being good hosts.

Labor is expensive, doing what the manufacturer suggests for optimal results isn't something I want to do twice.

Purchase price: $32,000 Cash invested: $34,000 Sale price: $85,000 First time flip; After additional rehab costs surfaced, decided to sell rather than hold as a rental to optimize profits; Reinvested those profits back into the business.

If you don't have a specific, long term investing plan with specific measurable goals, then odds are whatever you invest in will not be optimal.  ---- "If You don't know where you are going, any road will get you there " :) Lewis Carroll

G2 Crowd also allows ratings and does all of the SEO for you (search engine optimization) but the drawback is that reviewers have to be users on linked in.