@Upen PatelAre there general rules of thumb or any kind of specifics in order to pass the "smell test" or is it more lender specific?

Yes, but it kind of sucks if you already own the property and want to develop it yourself.

Grants or any kind of financial help.

That's the kind of debt that killed investors and corporations in the most recent downturn.

I've been reading a lot about different investment and property management softwares/services and am kind of a tech guy myself.

Here is the quick and dirty; I am late cashing out an investor due to the fact that my account is currently frozen due to some red flags on how I was moving money in and out (newer account, a few failed closings, so monies came in and out of escrow, so the activity looks weird) The bank is doing some kind of anti money laundering investigation, which I am not worried about at all.

With 250k, you can easily get a 4 bedroom house in a good neighborhood but the question is how do we get a cash flow with that kind of purchase?

I see a lot of newer agents if they don't have a warm market or sphere to tap into.. they will get on a big producers team.. this can jump start you.out our way agencies have lead creation systems and will literally hand you web leads for listings or sales.My wife had taken a few year hiatus and to kind of jump start ( her normal business is referrals) but she wanted to work some leads and get going and it worked very well she made many sales and got a few listing which in this market is simply money in the bank. find your niche.. and remember 95% of agents all try the same thing.. you may want to specialize.. and commerical agents though dog tough to start if you make it.. its a really good business once your established.

You can get a sense of how a person lives and what kind of tenant they may be.Ask for previous landlord referrals and CALL THEM ALL.

This kind of piggy-backs on your #2 Martin, but I would say the biggest thing is just showing up day after day and doing the work.