Know, trust and like are all good to invest but how does one communicate to their investors is key.

You said you were happy with your property management, but keep a close eye on that and how they respond when there are issues, because poor property management is what can kill you in the end with poor tenant placement, poor communication when tenant falls behind on rent, or passing on costly repair costs.

We've had lots of issues with this PM- horrible communication, questionable charges without receipts and not notifying us of maintenance that needed to be done with the property and we would have willingly fired them a long time ago aside from the ungodly amount written into our contract to break the lease.

Mainly lack of communication. 

I guess I didn't communicate well because you didn't really understand me.

But this doesn't apply to ALL loans that you may qualify for so the guidance here is to get prequalified right away and speak to your loan officer to make sure they know the difference and know how to communicate to you what you need to do if you can only qualify for one of these loans.  

I was curious if anyone knows what the typical "going rate" is for a general contractor on a normal single-family residential flip. this will be in Georgia. i've been communicating with one who wants to be paid a weekly rate nearing $1k and also 5% of the project costs on the back end.

I'd suggest slowing down, and forcing yourself to communicate a bit more concisely. 

Make sure to communicate responsibilities you have as Landlord vs.

You can also set up a virtual office, mail forwarding, phone and even have your incoming communications go through an Attorney so you have attorney client privilege.