Would you live there if you were just a regular homeowner, if there was no extra money to be made?

A basic 3/2 in the Orlando area offers nothing extra so you have to go crazy on themed rooms and all sorts of cool stuff.

But…there probably won’t be any extra time.Sound familiar?

But I feel like the extra leg work in being a landlord isn’t that bad because the process is pretty simple.

The west coast is expensive and usually speculative market with low to no cashflows especially at the rates we're experiencing right now even if you bought the property at a great price.The mid west states have higher cashflow and lower rates (higher rent to value ratios) but also returns on paper are deceiving with what you receive in real life because tenant turnover is high and tougher tenants also are rougher with your units so your turnover costs are a lot higher as well.

Also, you should be focused on constuction lenders who offer best leverage (usually those who will capitalize interest reserve &  finance a portion of the soft costs), lower floors on the rate since most banks tie their construction debt pricing to the fed rate, perhaps offer lower or no pre-payment penalty if the property reaches the permanent financing phase of the loan product before you are able to refinance and low or no required depository relationship outside of the actual operating ccount.

As far as a multi, personally if all things were equal I'd go for the multi for a few reasons.  1) Added diversification.. if one tenant doesn't pay, you can still cover property expenses with the other tenants 2) Shared capex... typically, one roof and one property to maintain but multiple streams of income 3) Less vacancy.. usually multi's rent for lower, for example one of mine is the sweet spot of 3 bedrooms for $1300. 

And here's a little extra tip: team up with a good cleaning crew who knows about travel nurse places.

Hi Grant, would a Google search turn up viable local hard money lenders usually?

Custom Excel or Google Sheets SpreadsheetPros:Highly customizable to fit exactly what data you want to track.No extra cost if you already have access to Microsoft Office or Google Workspace.Easy to share and collaborate with partners if you use Google Sheets.Cons:Can become cumbersome to manage as your portfolio grows.Lacks automated features like real-time updates or integration with banking systems.2.