Know that every long term lender will require a survey and if something comes up on it when you are trying to sell or refi, you could get stuck in hard money without an easy or quick way to get out.Is there a pre-payment penalty?

I have not selected a specific property yet, but want to at least identify my potential investors.

if so, did you get your initial investment back or make a profit besides the monthly payments?

For example, the buyer, if they find problems with the property or stop making payments, can blow up the seller's credit.

What kind of account or vehicle would you suggest to start saving down payment money for my first rental property?

Financing contingency is there if you can't get the loan at the amount you thought, interest rate is raised or your payment changed higher than you put in the loan could give you an out.

To avoid going through the same poor experience, keep reading.Even if someone gives you a referral here, do NOT make the mistake of assuming that the PMC will meet your expectations, just because they met the expectations of the referral source.In our experience, the #1 mistake owners make when selecting a Property Management Company (PMC) is ASSUMING instead of CONFIRMING.It's often a case of not doing enough research, as they don't know what they don't know!

If you sell, you could access the equity you’ve built and put it toward other investments or save for a future down payment.

We also have many unique buyer incentives where an investor can get up to a 10% price reduction to come into immediate equity, or get that 10% as a cash back at closing to reduce your down payment and increase your ROI, or buy rates down into the low 4s on 30yr loans to maximize cash flow.

The maximum fixed-rate period seems to be seven years, and there is generally a balloon payment at 10 or 15 years.