A good manager will handle everything from marketing to maintenance and tenant screening, saving you time and stress.Vendors and LandscapingBuilding a team of dependable vendors—like landscaping companies, contractors, and insurance agents—is critical.

By creating a process, you can prevent these issues from taking place and save yourself a lot of time, trouble, and money.

You could also get a line of credit for about $150k (you should be able to borrow 75% of the value.)The reason I suggest this is…1) you save $40-$60k in selling costs. 2) you have a lower blended interest rate (2/3rds at 3.25% and 1/3rd at 7 or 8% instead of the whole $500k at 7 or 8%) saving you another $1k/mo in interest. 3) you only pay interest on that $150k when you actually use it, not from day 1  Unless you hate this property, or want to buy something you can’t afford without selling, that would be my plan.

I have 880 credit score, decent savings, and no other debt except for 300K mortgage on my primary residence (worth $1.5 million).

Instead of their cash sitting in a savings account, they decided it would be a better investment to earn 3% on their money instead of .03% in the bank.

Opt 1) utilizing our savings in the brokerage account and emergency fund and pay for it all up front. 

My recommendation is before chasing all these real estate deals is to go earn and save some money so when a good deal comes a long you can take action and move on it. 

Cost to wait is maybe save couple grand on zoning attorney but could potentially make that up by earning some rent earlier (vs. unused space). 

Starting real estate investing early is a smart move, especially while leveraging your military benefits.

Not necessarily a scam, maybe someone trying to save fees.