After doing what I thought was diligence, I decided to use several crowd sourced RE investment vehicles.

If anyone knows of a better source to search for package deals.

I tend to buy where stable industry plants roots.

Your geographical location will not be a driving factor if you can source local third party management.

Hey Everyone - I am new to BiggerPockets and since I have found these forums to be very valuable and a great source for information.

Refinance it to either a conventional lender or a non-traditional source that is more flexible than banks.

Long-term, buy & hold is a great strategy - I've always been a firm believer that you have the upper hand with these properties in the investment field because you have the advantage of being first in an area then being able to wait for appreciation for whenever you want to sell "when the time is right".Often times, these rental properties also don't involve the full scale upgrades (less money out-right) that you would need in a traditional fix-&-flip in order to hit projected ARV's.The one draw-back here is out-sourcing your rentals to a property management company - which finding the right one for the right price can take some time to vet - or else managing the property yourself, in which case you will need to start building relationships with contractors to ensure proper repairs are being done and the needs of your tenants are being met.You can do buy & holds out of state easily, too, just find the right market that is land-lord friendly (for example, mid-west: Indiana), and I think its fair to say you could do well long-term with the right properties!

I am getting close to finishing up a rehab in Pensacola, FL and am having a hard time finding a good source for windows. 

I understand that private money can sometimes be unreliable and that's why you need to get PREQUALIFIED with other funding sources too just in case.Hope all of that makes sense. 

Since I've gotten this job my wife hasn't worked so this is our only source of income currently.