Again I'm not sure why that would be advantageous to the Seller and more importantly to you other than recording it could trigger a due on sale clause in the first mtg, but again your affidavit of interest is supposed to be recorded.Also, you wrote your payments to the Seller will be escrowed and from there the Seller will make payments to the first lender and you wrote the Seller is in over his head. 

Glad to say my wife and I have pulled the trigger and completed our first deal in Raleigh, NC.

Some of the FL markets I am involved in have appreciated dramatically due to an influx of folks going to warmer weather for Covid triggered remote work.

That realtor will most likely spend more time working with someone who's willing to pull the trigger now versus working with you.Understand how much rent you can get in the different areas of Raliegh/Durham- Again you can research on your own or hire a realtor.

I also don’t have any rentals, yet, but have been a lurker and researcher for a while and plan to pull the trigger on an out of state property in the next few months

    - Look for Special Form (also called All Risk) for the Perils Insured against     - Look for Replacement Cost for how the loss will be valued    - Include "Personal Injury Protection" (different than the Bodily Injury & Property Damage Liability included       in the policy. 

If you use a contractor that has no license and something happens involving an injury, would the home owner than be liable or can a contractor not have a license but can have insurance for his/her workers?

For those of you who are not familiar with IFTTT, it is a web-based service that allows users to create chains of conditional statements to trigger notifications to you.

Supply is quite low here and in other popular South ATL towns so be ready to pull the trigger when something comes on the market that fits your criteria. 

At the end of the day if you have a good real estate deal presenting itself it may be wise to pull the trigger.