I also didn't realize how many different skills were required, from financing to managing contractors to permits to city inspections to managing tenants or property managers.

Searching and examining title requires knowledge & experience. 

Watch out for fine print that requires an additional fee at closing - this is a huge red flag and how most flat fee companies make money.

Regarding remote managing, in our 24 years of experience, dealing with hundreds of investors, what we've had to bail DIY Remote Investors out of is mostly Class C properties with some Class B.So, in our opinion, one can remote manage a Class A property fairly easily if you are organized.Class B requires more organization and knowledge, to avoid tenants taking advantage of you.Class C should NOT be done DIY - hire a PMC!

It's a struggle starting out and I don't think it's talked about enough in more of a blunt way, in blog posts or any article on the web, everyone seems to softly speak about the introduction part that requires money.

I am hoping to meet the requirements for the STR loophole and offset his income.

I was hoping to find some sort of refi with payment deferments but it looks like the programs require more equity that I have.

We advise landlords to require two main criteria:1) Household income should be at least 40x the monthly rent.2) Applicants must have a credit score of 680 or higher.It's also important to review credit reports for red flags like rental collections or high credit card balances.

The current tenant says they have gotten the problem fixed but all that is required is some tile work and installing the new toilet. 

Profit/Loss Statement and Balance Sheet for the Property: At a minimum, we would want a profit/loss statement and a balance sheet for the most recent complete year as well as year-to-date for the property, but we would prefer to also get the last 2 years of tax return pages for the property.