I suggest listening to as many BP podcast as possible to get a wide variation of all the investing flavors. 

But the problem is that she has to make her payments for a 3-month trial period and there is no guarantee that the bank will follow through with the initial terms given in their offer.My friend doesn't want to make even the trial payments as she is close to retirement age and just wants to get rid the place.  

We both have demanding "day jobs" (I am a Clinical Research Associate for Phase I oncology clinical trials, and my husband heads up the operations for a telecommunications start-up company), but like many others we are seeking long term investment opportunities.We hope not to get stuck in the "analysis paralysis" stage and are actively seeking to build relationships in the Columbus, Ohio area (we recently relocated due to Chi's operations; yes, I blame him for the weather!)

They will want a DSCR (debt service coverage ratio, goes by other variations) that meets some criteria.

USDA is very close to fannie mae/fha with property variations, much eaiser than fha.

That is why I recommend people look at their first 5-10 deals as a part of your training process...and if all your split was from every deal is 10-20% of the profits you'd till be making out because of the experience you will gain.Generally the experienced investor will have tons of relationships in place that you will be able to leverage that will save you 10,000's in time, money, and trial and error.Hope that helps...PS The best thing about a mentor in your local market is a great mentor will know the market well enough to know a deal without having to use guess work, they typically understand the little differences in neighborhood that might cause a radical drop in house values of homes that might look like deals, but  are really "Money Pits".

Chris Reeves,If you have  a very large brokerage with lots of people to offset the cost then it might make sense.See if they have a no contract trial where you can cancel in a few months if you do not like what you see.

I just need to get my feet wet, and learn by trial and error.

It's the end-buyer's job to determine this and for the wholesaler to figure out through either asking or through trial-and-error.Some end-buyers would likely be happy with 75%.

There is a bit of trial and error here, unfortunately.