Also I am sure this was not as difficult in the last couple years when values nationwide have risen at a pretty rapid pace. 

I've had banks see the process of the BRRRR method and rapid appreciation and think I'm creating some sort of loophole... but some banks get it and empower the investor.

Add to that the principle you are banking away each month and the tortoise becomes the rabbit pretty rapidly.

I personally have no handyman skills but I sure would figure some things out if my business wasn‘t growing as rapidly as it is.

It's strong demand for rentals in good areas with many areas seeing rapid growth as they gentrify such as Pilsen, Avondale and Albany Park.

I believe they do aspire to that, but their rapid growth is probably making that a pretty lofty goal (at this time). 

Columbus offers a lot of potential for future growth with many big-tech companies either moving into the market or expanding their business here, which is contributing to rapid economic development.

It allowed me to scale rapidly with little money- the bottleneck in my business model is basically execution.

That area is growing rapidly, as it is is very close to Toyota/Mazda and the Facebook Data center.  

I know people can suffer from paralysis from analysis, but when i look at the rapid extreme variability in all of these factors, my gut tells me unless you have mostly cash, then it may be prudent to sit tight on the idea of getting into the first one.