Prevents any issues coming up later when you want to sell the property or when the county sends drones through your neighborhood looking for unpermitted pools/decks/carports, etc to try to raise revenue to cover unfunded liabilities in government spending. ;-)

I know he covers Cleveland, Akron, and all the surrounding suburbs. 

You'd be looking at putting 10% down and getting the rehab costs completely covered. 

So, like you said, partnering would be one option or getting private lender to cover a downpayment would be another.

@Wilson Rith With a 3-unit you have a better chance to having most of your mortgage covered.

I feel like I have my bases covered, but am wondering if I'm missing anything obvious or if you have any tried and true questions that help weed out the bad ones.Overall - can you help me get over the fear I'm having about handing my units to a company who (seemingly) will sweep in, re-lease to their paperwork (thus charging me 8 re-leasing fees), disrupt the tenant and their current habits (all of which are well-trained save for an older Section8 gentleman) and ask them to make changes? 

I agree with @Jay Shapiro, the placement fee is to cover marketing, screening, showing, etc... they did none of this.

I don’t negotiate if I already have what I want/need to cover my costs to bring it back to “rent ready” condition.  

In terms of investing with low money down, you have to start networking to find other investors that would be willing to put money in with you to cover the down-payment and closing costs.

You are building room in the backend of the note to cover your investor's entitlement while still making the money you're looking for up front.If you don't have a passive investor to sell to, then you're going to have to rethink your strategy here.Sidenote: If this loan is to a consumer at 12% interest, you might have what the CFPB calls a High-Cost Mortgage on your hands, in which, there's a lot more compliance to deal with.