The reason everyone thinks wholesalers are cheats and the business has a terrible reputation is because so many of them don't know what they are doing and mangle the leads, which can affect other real wholesalers in the area.The forums are certainly for gaining knowledge, but if you come to a board where there are experts, you can't run home to your mommy when they ask you questions about why you are in the business if your OP says you literally don't know anything about it.Too many new investors post too little and expect to get help, but you can't help someone if all they say is HALP!

A higher cap rate is an indicator that people are not terribly interested in owning the property, and so a higher return has to be shopped to the market. 

Since it is an SFR and you are taking on roommates, don't underestimate a good roommate even if they aren't willing to pay as much as a terrible roommate, your peace of mind is worth a lot.

Rates are not terribly far from conventional rates, but they are significantly more expensive to transact. 

We had a TERRIBLE experience with CrestCore in Memphis and it's resulted in a civil lawsuit against them.

Not terribly difficult, but new.

I had one appraisal go terribly wrong and I lost $10k because the dealFlopped.

Also, the encapsulant paint is very thick/chunky and looks terrible.  

Fortunately the nature of investing in real estate from Gambia and from San Francisco are not too terribly different in a few key ways:  here are a fewWill you invest in your market or another market?

Nope, sometimes you get someone who passes all the checks you're allowed to do (and we can do less and less with each new "non-discrimination" law) and still treats the property terribly.