Don't tie your personal name with the LLCs interests in any manner except as to personal responsibility on loans to the LLC. :)

I've done all of those steps except purchased J Scotts books (will be soon) and attended and REI meeting ( will be soon).

Landlord references are usually worthless except in the rare cases that they let you know the tenant is a loser.

There is no way of saying which borrower or tenant will default except through good underwriting practices and the ability to read people, I don't miss very often and there are aspects of life, those "financial life events" that can never be foreseen in advance.As to bands of investment/price, not really as I'm an underwriter type and consider each property in relation to the market demand, market rents or collateral nature, to the tenant/borrower.

Please screen your tenant exceptionally well since they will be living right next to you.

The exception being a refundable damage deposit held by the landlord.

@Ryan Watson Ryan the problem with demo ing a home in almost all the cash flow markets and sub 100k homes is the LOTS are WORTHLESS..To replace any kind of home would cost double quadriple what you folks pay for homes in your markets..So if you buy a 40k home that rents for 700 a month..... there is no replacement value except for a catastrophic loss ( fire)..

I don't think I could ever have a "number" except for "more" when I was working minimum wage I couldn't wait to make more money.

I don’t get the advantage to doing one of these five year commercial notes, except maybe for wholesalers who are planning to get in and out of the loan quick.

If your clients are investors they will figure their estimated ROI.If they aren't investors, sell the sizzle not the steak, a homebuyer isn't interested on financial returns (except that they'd like to know an average appreciation rate for the area) as they are living in the home.People buy homes they don't buy houses, investors buy houses.