My wife and I are on our 3rd homeowner occupied flip house and do the majority of the work ourselves.After 5 years of living in a construction zone, we too are starting to look to complete a cash-out refi on our current house in order to purchase our next house and a rental over the next 6 months.  

I'm a full time Firefighter/EMT, husband, father of two very active and amazing children, and a dedicated family man.

You need a business appraiser (or CPA) and a real estate appraiser for this.2.

I had Jim Soletti manage my south Austin rental for ~10 years, and I didn't have to think about it at all except for tax time...they are top-notch and a family business.

It takes away from your profit potiential for an investment and as far as I know you can not debduct the cost in your taxes.

For owner financing I would pitch it to the owner however you would like to lay it out, or ask if they would do payments and a balloon within a few years to let you build equity and income on the property.

By the end of 5 years I hopefully have between 60-125% of my down payment back and a capital gains profit that is rolled into two new properties!

I'm still fairly new to investing as well... just got my RE license, preparing my first DM campaign, and a few other things to set everything up.

But I think my reputation on BP and as a meetup group leader definitely helped.

Loopnet, NJ MLS, zillow/trulia, and a bunch of others.