There is less risk there.And there are Master Lease Options, usually for small 2 to 4 + units where you are guaranteeing a minimum payment to the Owner-Seller and you get what ever you can from your sublease agreements netting a profit.If you are broke, Lease Option Assignments help you get chunk cash faster than most strategies.I wrote an article for BP in 2010 on this herehttp://www.biggerpockets.com/articles/2068-how-to-do-a-lease-option-assignmentsHope this helps!

This could help us to save another 20% for the next rental property much faster.

The main thing I would do differently is to tell myself to stop screwing around and do more, faster!

Or will the unit sell faster if there is at least laminate flooring? 

I woke up this morning thinking about the impact that hiring a property manager has on buying a series of investment properties using the Nomad investing strategy.While I used properties for Northern Colorado (Fort Collins, Loveland, Greeley area), I think the lessons apply to lots of other markets.For my assumptions, I assumed everything was the same EXCEPT in one scenario I hired a property manager at 10% of gross rents and the other I self-managed.If you're not paying a PM, you end up being able to buy the properties faster.

Maybe the margins on your rentals aren’t great in his eyes, maybe with your real estate success taxes are going to be an issue, maybe he’s anti debt accumulation, maybe hes unaware that some markets didn’t react like CA during the last recession, maybe you are heavily weighted towards real estate and he’s just trying to get you diversified more.

This will make your payments low and if you want to pay it off faster, you can add extra payments.

Some tenants were afraid of losing their home so it was a lot of weight off their shoulders and it ensured we were off to a good start.3) Getting every tenant's information.

It is easier and faster to start earning an income compared to realty brokerage.

@Darrin Carey touched on a great point that I wanted to make: Getting your Real Estate License will not necessarily make you a better/smarter/faster/cheaper investor - the two skill sets are completely different.As an agent, you'll learn the concept of agency (representing the interests of another party in a transaction) and the associated laws in your state, and you'll learn the inner workings of the "closed ecosystem" that is the MLS.