To be financed by private lenders who have no real estate lending experience.In my experience, unless bailed out by a inflationary rapidly rising market, 80% of investors first deals lose money (I have made over 500 investment property loans in the last 15 years).  

He bought it with a small escrow account for the repairs, did the work...and those improvements along with the market growing rapidly the following year he gained some solid equity.

All of our units are in Marion and personal residence on NE side of Cedar Rapids in Linn Mar school district.  

I feel that I could grow a 3rd party management company fairly rapidly if I decided to.

Typically land contracts in Grand Rapids are around 5 years with a larger down payment.

Bob is in pretty good position currently with that savings rate, which will rapidly help him build wealth. - Bob has educated himself to the point where he is extremely comfortable with real estate in his area and understands the steps he needs to take to purchase, rehab, and manage a property.

you can check your local property appraiser/tàx collector website usually to see what taxes are and in a rapidly appreciating market, yes, taxes are going up so it could be legit.  

That is rapidly changing in many areas but its not a uniform transition.  

If you need something in Traverse City, I can refer you to someone, even in Grand Rapids I know great Realtors.  

However, if you want to rapidly build a large rental portfolio that generates enough cash flow to live on and build a significant net worth, that is what you need to do.Please note that I live in Ohio.