My question for you all is whether we should be breaking our back looking for a mortgage company that will forgo mortgage insurance to keep our expenses as low as possible?  

Once you update your insurance, the insurance carrier will notify the lender and that will trigger the due on sale clause.The reason the due on sale clause is typically not triggered, is because people do not update their insurance....thus in an attempt to limit their liability they do the opposite and blow up their liability by forgoing insurance. 

@Michele Velazquez I always vote for going where you know - especially as a newbie investor - buy in your own backyard so you can have boots on the ground.

If you show that the purchase you made was a success and are willing to leave a little skin in the game then I don’t see why you couldn’t find a lender willing to forgo the seasoning period.

This post makes me think of this old silly song about a sketchy looking car.https://www.youtube.com/watch?

The maintenance guy should have no reason to be frustrated as he should be getting paid for going onsite whether it was a big issue or not.  

Thanks, @Hui Song.

@Marvin Song - No, I'm sorry.  

A few members here are from DFW, so to use it as an example the Uptown and Knox-Henderson is bursting at the seams with activity and can probably fit no more cranes as a result the development or re-development (typically a phase that typically precedes new development in urban areas) is getting pushed north all the way and even past the Loop (Loop 12) where the apartments that used to go $15-25k a door just three years ago are now approaching $50-60's as-is and $100s once updated.This movement has displaced a lot of local DFW investors who are starting to look at Wichita Falls or parts of Oklahoma, which is actually undergoing a contraction and Louisiana, where the 7 or 8% cap rates are still feasible and cost per door is much closer to the historic levels that Dallas enjoyed for years, however, by going for the cash flow they have to forgo potentially explosive growth (which can go both ways). 

I've installed two different laminates in my own house, plus some engineered bamboo that I got for a song on Craigslist.