Total rent for the property purely as an investment property is what I calculated in the rental calculator.I'll have "negative" cash flow purely from an investment standpoint with only renting one side, but that's also partially my cost of living in the duplex, not really a negative cash flow property.

Also you can keep going forward with owner-occupied properties for a verrrry long time, before a lender will say "no more," because it is less risky for them to rent to an owner occupant.If you were to go forward with a pure rental, you will have to put more money down.

This is for owner occupied though so maybe you are right about not borrowing the down payment when it is a pure investment property with conventional financing.  

second home, not a pure rental property.You will have to maintain your residence in the property to qualify as the program is not intended for pure rental properties.Your lender performs all of the vetting on your application and it is the lender who applies for the insurance (as the insurance protects the lender, not you).  

Depends on the size of the portfolio you intend to build, whether you have lots of capital now or will be buying slowly and steadily (like me), the mix of property types (multi-family vs single family), and your financial goals and exit strategy (pure cash flow versus balanced cash flow and appreciation).Generally, diversification is good.

This is purely a trespassing issue.

if we are talking about pure brokering, and not selling fractionalized participations, you shouldn't have to worry about securities law compliance.  

We've never bought a property purely as an investment property, though.I'm mainly interested in rehabbing because I enjoy the design and build process and would like to pick up a property sometime this year.

You get lockbox codes so you can walk through them alone (no more waiting on realtors, wasting their time, or vice-versa)You can see a property and get an offer to the selling agent within 10 minutes, direct contact with selling agent or sellerBuy/sell your own properties which gives you an extra 6% or so pure profit depending on broker splitGet taken more seriously in generalEliminate a middle manYou learn a lot about real estate in general while getting your licenseCons - Money spent on getting and maintaining licenseFind broker to work under who is investor friendlyDifferent expectations, professional liability and obligations (you are no longer just a homeowner/seller) Only saves you money if you buy/sell at least a house or two per year

When I get back into the market, I will be offering my embarrassingly low prices purely and simply because:- that's all I want to pay!