"reserves") when it comes to vacancies?

Assuming the tenant pays the rent on time, there's no reason why your draw shouldn't be deposited by the 10th.Having said that, this scenario is exactly why PM companies ask you to keep a small reserve of, say, $300 in your account.

Next, institutional types, broker/dealers have pools of investors, reserves to tap into to conduct business, they are "built to trade" they command they yield offered.Ma and Pa note holders, sold the farm and carried a note back, they have also been collecting payments, paying their tax guy to send out 1099s, compute tax on the principal, take phone calls if the borrower thinks they might be late one month (a good borrower or they just wait) they know one of the borrowers lost a job, now they are shaking if the place has to be taken with them out of town now.

Plus we would need to have more reserves and a bigger down payment then we have if we did go conventionally...  

We have ample anount of reserves and private money to close on most deals if we desired.

You could build up some experience, and a good amount of cash flow and reserves in a more forgiving market.If you still want to invest in NYC, I would suggest attending some of the local REIAs and networking with current landlords to get a feel for how they run their rentals, and what their issues with tenants are, and how they deal with them.Good luck in your foray into buy & hold investing!

Looks like Virginia law is ok with partial payment as long as you accept with reservation in writing.  

It may take calling 40-80 banks.The other thing to really consider and I see this overlooked quite a bit is to have a reserve emergency fund. 

After close to six years of historically low rates, and with an economy growing every year, the Federal Reserve is expected to allow modest increases to the rates to achieve a more normalized level.

Keep it because it cash flows alright for her, but be sure to start putting away some of that money for CAP EX and repairs until she has about $12k in reserves.