@Austin TessMany lenders have a seasoning period (typically 6-12 months) before you can refinance.

This is typically the slowest time of year for tenant placement, at least in our local market.

Typically you aren't buying a fixer upper with a conventional loan.

My savings was completely drained from interest payments and surprise costs I had to manage, and lots of little costs that at the outset I believed this guy would cover (100 to mow grass, every two weeks).

So - with something like that in place, I would tell you that a property manager is highly overrated (perhaps the better way of saying it is "over-paid") for the amount of work that is typically needed in a month.

i agree that a new purchase at 75% equity will typically not have significant cash flow and may even be negative when properly allocating for all expenses.Investing to max equity without reserves is risky and you indicate would result in stress.  

Also, while you might have to put down 40%+ in some countries, it isn't typical and, again, it's not the case in some of the countries you mention. 

This is largely because I can typically get higher rents in B and A-class neighborhoods without relying on Section 8.I’d recommend focusing your search on C and C+ neighborhoods, for both multi-family and single-family homes with more than three bedrooms.

Instead of 40 houses cash flowing $200 each or $8000/month, you buy 10 houses and pay them off for a cash flow of $10,000/month with 1/4th the headache.People don't understand the amount of time, energy, and stress involved with managing a lot of doors, especially if they are lower-class properties typically needed to generate cash flow.

My goal is to stabilize, refinance within 3-5 years, and offer strong returns to lenders.Your point about targeting SDIRA investors and high earners is interesting—how do you typically find and connect with these types of lenders?