Don't expect to start making lots of money if you are starting from nothing.

No one cares about your money like you do. 3)  Discuss expectations with your JV partner. 

From what I understand a private lender is interested in lending his/her money out for a super high interest rate and to expect the money back in a fairly short amount of time.

It's an interesting push-pull that you have to manage.Instead, a better approach is to gate down the expectations. 

This comes about to $4k which is significantly greater than my expected mortgage payment.The seller's asking price was about $475,000.Based on the seller's asking price and 475k/1230.

If that is a positive cash flow and if you can expect that same cashflow from each property you acquire, how many properties will you need in your rental portfolio to replace your W-2 pay? 

Not being an agent, it does not affect me but I would say when you put in your LOI, declare that you are an agent representing yourself and your commission expectations.

Their prices are cheap and the quality is better than you might expect. 

It's a very exciting market to explore because there's a ton of revitalization and new outer-ring development happening simultaneously, and we expect it to stay that way for quite a while.

If I rented from YOU and YOUR sewer pipes broke, I'd be expecting you to foot the bill to rent me a hotel that is comparable to what I was living with before.