I would suggest starting lower for "early birds" and as you get closer to completion raise the rents to market value.

Many investors from California are choosing to invest in the Midwest because of the low barrier to entry and yearly cash returns making more sense in these lower priced markets.

Yes, should be closing on a pool within the next 10 days. 

One thing I would not do, however, is buy solely because you're counting on being able to refinance into a lower rate in order to become profitable.

A two-family where you live in one side and rent your other rooms to friends and then rent the other side (maybe even do mid-term rental or short-term) with a much lower downpayment is potentially a better producer.

Anyone had JTFoxx training and successfully closed any deals with his investment strategies?

3) Ensuring one of the units is vacant by closing? 

I imagine this would take close to a year if all went well, and eat up a lot of funds.

Thanks, Gary Neely Gary, Just use you standard state contract and write out the terms of your seller financing in an addendum or on the OTP itself if there's lines for additional provisions.Be clear and concise.Example,Seller will carry a promissory note secured by a 1st position mortgage in the amount $97,583.00, at 6% interest, amortized over 30 years, witha a maturity date and balloon payment due 10 years after the closing date.Hope this helps and certainly get an attorney involved if you are not comfortable drafting the language.  

I have found time is better spent building tools to quickly analyze & procure new deals, rather than hyper-analyzing the metrics of one deal, ultimately making initial review faster & more reliable (spend time on the things that make sense, quickly remove things that don't, even junior-level staff can identify good opportunities with the tools, etc).For example, if I'm modeling a SFR to 3-4 unit scheme, I can quickly check the $/sf/mo for each of my proposed units and get a good idea of the GOI without having to manually dig through &  find rent comps in that City/Zip:- So instantly I know in Woodland Hills that a Studio is close to $5/sf/mo on avg, 1 Bedroom closer to $4/sf/mo, with the 2 & 3 Bedrooms closer to $3/sf/mo.