When I was looking to refi a few months ago, I wasn't satisfied with all the red tape, added costs, and rates of my bank, so I kept exploring.

But according to the VA, I need to have:-Cash reserves totaling at least 6 months mortgage payments (principal, interest, taxes, and insurance – PITI), and-Documentation of the applicant’s prior experience managing rental units or other background involving both property maintenance and rental.I have 6 months reserves, but dont have any experience as a landlord.

He is in his 70s.Also GC I know, Oakland, mortgage applicant of mine: "Working with real estate 'investors' who do not even own real estate is stupid, my income went up 40% when I stopped working with them, I don't bother returning the call.

Ive got a rental listed, lots of activity, no applications.

I would like whatever program I go with to allow online payments, maintenance requests, basic accounting, online applications, and reasonable priced.

Aside from providing the basics (ie. listing tool to get the property published to 10+ major sites, scheduling tool to schedule viewings, tenant screening with comprehensive applications -- pulled reports from TransUnion, which include nationwide criminal background checks + credit checks + eviction history, digital lease creation tool, rent collection tool, and maintenance tracking tool), some services also offer your tenants additional capabilities which makes it an easier sell on your end when getting them to transition over (ie. their ability to report on-time rent payments to the credit bureaus; this can create an added incentive for making sure they pay that rent on time).

Like Kai said - a lot of the books have been written in a very different market and give you advise that is simply not applicable for todays market!

@Tyler Brown,It sounds like your focus is on cash flow and your pretax return, but I would encourage you to look at your total return and consider the other benefits that real estate has to offer: amortization (not applicable with no debt), tax shelter (depreciation and deductions), appreciation (around 8% based on those numbers), and cash flow.Appreciation is very healthy based on the numbers you provided.

Also, I have not picked an application process yet.

You can’t deny an applicant for the criminal record.