It's OK after the first month, and I think it's fair that they protect themselves against clawbacks or repair costs (they don't have a reserve per property that they hold).We had one that started off with the same scenario described in the OP, paying off around the 15 th for the PRIOR months rent, AND they held a reserve of $500 per property. 

Taxes Sewer and Water Trash Heat/Utilities HOA Cap Ex and Ops Insurance Mgmt Fee Vacancy

The college has a pretty good co-op plan from what I understand, (Alternating semesters of work and school -- gives the student a full year's worth of full time work experience before graduation) so if I can get a job through that I will be in the college town for a total of three years, Junior, Senior, plus an extra for work. 

OP  builders want shovel ready lots and since these are so inexpensive anyway there Is no way they are going to go through the brain drain to save a few thousand dollars.now if your talking a 150k lot that you can pick up for sub 100k it would be worth it..

Don't get me wrong, it can work in some cAses, and it's great for a retail buyer, but based on your OP is sounded like you were trying to get into low value properties and looking for lenders who will service them.

I think the whole point of OP's post is, "when purchasing a fourplex, does it make more sense to live in one unit or rent it out and continue to rent somewhere else?"

To the OP, these are the main reasons that you need to look out, nobody will give you an accurate estimate on your rehab costs for free, if the contractor that you invite knows a lot about fire damage repair -- which they usually does, they won't hesitate stealing your deal.

For example, yoy take management at 10% which is earned from running the business, that is an expense to the seller, but he can become inactive as well.In the ops agmt, the new guy can pledge collateral and buy say 30% of the seller's equity, note for shares/interest.

Originally posted by Tyler Jackson: From the update to the OP:...

I'm beginning to think that the OP did not realize that the term "guru" has a pejorative connotation when it comes to real estate investing.