I am a newbie, but from Biggerpocket podcasts and several books I read, it seems that commercial real estate realtors (brokers) are quite different from the residential realtors: they usually let several buyers on the top of their list know their deals first before putting them on the market, so that they can have the double commissions (6% of a 2-million deal is quite different from 3% of 2 million deal).

It's usually simplest to create in the state you do business in, not your state of residence.

If someone moves out then you are negative cash flow $1,400 a month plus repairs.

Having said that, being that busy means higher commissioned sales are probably higher priority and submitting ridiculous low ball offers could be a negative on them considering experience.

Don't rationalize any numbers, or use anything other than cash (i.e. equity, appreciated gain, tax deductions, ...) since those other items are NOT CASH.3 - If you have a negative number, that means you get more cash back in your deal, within the first year, than you spent (so in this case...used)...and you have a winner.4 - If you have a positive number, that means you have spent money to buy this property...your money.5 - If you fall into the #3 category, you have recovered all your initial cash (seed money).  

Regarding the laminate, you can usually find a color match pen/marker used to repair scratches.

But how do the investments go from negative to positive 6%? 

Yale Drive, to sound like a broken record, has some good and some bad, usually not too bad though.

As far as utilization goes, any amount reporting will have a negative effect on the score unless it is the $2 trick (which is an advanced topic) the negative effect becomes more pronounced as you pass the 10%usage level.

Depending on your area, renting short-term and long-term can be very profitable as the TDYers have lodging allowances that are based on the average daily rate for a hotel, usually $2800-$4000 per month.