I bought my first rental in March '07 and then waited patiently until Sept. '09 until I found another deal, then another and another in rapid succession.

The eviction process thanks to the court moves surprisingly rapidly so people pay there rent cause if they don't they know they have to pack up there stuff ...

As you drive away from downtown, it gets rapidly worse.I do a lot of contract serve work with Habitat for Humanity in that specific area.

If you are investing in “turnkey” because you think that is an incremental step along some linear path to real estate investing I think you may be disappointed.  

You could save cash to invest in more properties if you are looking to expand your portfolio as rapidly as possible.

Future plans are to continue with similar growth as rapidly as possible until we can achieve larger multi unit apartment complexes. 

These are current headlines. Although I don't think a collapse is imminent, I'm buying properties "off market" that have equity just to safe. I've seen several ups & downs of the housing market over the years and ...

I really want a local mentor here in Grand Rapids Mi.

Most people bring checks in $10,000 increments.  

What you're talking about doing is starting out fully levered, then rapidly unlevering yourself by paying so much down in equity at the expense of your cash flow.Think of it this way, if you do a 30 year vs a 15, you'll have that much more monthly cash flow to use as a contingency for if you have a bad few months.