So you are looking at lending directly to this individual rather than going through a "broker" that acts as the middle man for people looking for investors and people that want to the be lenderinvestor.

We closed at the end of December, had renovations done for the first unit towards the middle to end of January, and had a steady flow of "interested" candidates who wanted to see the apartment.

@Neal Collins  this type of developing is not for the faint of heart city Of portland has become a nightmare for this stuff.that little 3 lot deal on Ivy we talked about 3 years ago I am finally getting my permits..

I'm no expert but I am in the middle of renovating a house that was partly over 100 years old.

When you have a tenant moving in the middle of the month are you prorating the first month and then collecting the next rents on the 1st, or are you collecting a full month and changing the lease contract to make the monthly due date on the anniversary day of the beginning of the lease?

Wild card: is there a middle path I am missing that would generate good cash-flow at low starting capital that works either while i still rent or takes me out of having to rent?

You can always counter with here's the quote from a professional for what's actually wrong, I'll meet you in the middle.

In the middle of winter when the gas bill got really high, I would have trouble collecting from some tenants.

Also when finding an area to invest in do you look for good elementary schools, middle schools or high schools?

You can look at middle America (Idaho to Ohio) and most of the states have reasonable laws.