If the deal collapses and I would lose everything, I'm out.

Hope that helps! 

I am sure the properties are not in some of the better neighborhoods, but I am hoping with these new initiatives it can be changed if more people invest in home ownership. 

Worse, how much exponential profit are you losing from that negative CF that should have been invested in other properties? 

You have no experience in STR's, so before you make a huge mistake and buy a property, arbitrage may be a good option to "Get your hands dirty" without losing your shirt. 

Hope to start investing in the next year and will spend some time learning what I can from this site to prepare myself. 

One is a JUMBO that needs a TON of work- and trying to finalize that deal now- I hope. 

Note investing is something I hope to get into the future, get an attractive return and not having to deal with tenants.

Our goal is to focus on buy and hold properties for now, and we are hoping to purchase our first property in the next few months.

With all that being said, I'm hoping to start using sub contractors to handle the majority of my jobs moving forward, but I'm running into a small snag.The majority of the houses I'm buying right now I'm using hard money to fund.