It's about getting along and trusting each other.

They had no lease in place, but have been paying on time. 

If not, she will eventually find a new place, stop paying rent, string you along, and then move out in the middle of the night leaving you with a vacancy, past due rent and most likely a mess and damage to the unit.  

It may sound nice to pay a 6% management fee but the extra fees can add up to be more than the other company that charges 10% with no additional fees.

He is able to categorize transactions, reconcile accounts, send out owner statements, pay vendors, p&l reporting, and other bookkeeping tasks.

Most inquiring about the availability of the unit or saying something to the tune of "i can pay with a company check", to which I give a smart response, then report as scam.

The benefits to using available cash to fund multiples investments as opposed to paying all cash for one investment seem pretty self explanatory, but the largest benefits...especially in real estate...are likely the ability the spread risk across multiple investments and the ability to make multiple investments in a shorter period of time, allowing your cash flow, equity, and ultimately potentially your net worth to increase at a faster pace.To answer your question about traditional financing directly, yes you can obtain a traditional mortgage and put a large cash down payment down, essentially financing 'part' of the purchase price.

Hi Nina.If I were not experienced in land lording and property manager, I would look personally to the extent you want to learn or experience property management versus hiring someone else that you trust to do the job.Yes, the cost for a property manager is important but not essential- the cost between property managers are not double or triple the cost of others (say like attorneys in some areas of law or cars). 

@Greg ScottPeople don’t know what they don’t know and think they are doing something great by raising $ and hoping to reap the rewards - not understanding that if it goes bad it can go very bad for them.Mauricio also posted a LinkedIn post on this and it’s always been a challenge and for those who have sales people but cannot pay them a commission like most sales jobs offer unless they are licensed.

Hi Aqsa,I'm bias but then again, I've owned real estate all over and haven't found a better market for sub $100,000 than Toledo.Low entry price pointHigh cashflowEmployed tenants that pay rent onlineDecent areas with well kept homesNot much appreciation so IMO it's a strict cashflow play.If you find and buy off-market you can snag some great deals for sub $60,000 purchase and rehab.Quality of workmanship is the downside and so is motivation of other folks needed to make investing from out of state work.So beware.These are the downsides bit like with any market, you will always have pro's and con's.All the best 👍