I am looking to get a solid foundation of rentals over the next several years and wanted to make sure that I didn't make any avoidable mistakes right out of the gate.

To avoid prohibited transactions entirely, it's probably best to look for a completely separate rental property that you and your wife will not have any personal involvement in.

He was sued by the family and lost I believe it went all the way to the supreme court I guess the only way to avoid this as an investor-agent is to purchase only MLS listings and REOs?

If the owner sells to you perhaps he can avoid the 6% real estate fee so that's a lot of money you can negotiate with.

Avoiding Let Me Think It Over 3.

.- Let's say you decide to foreclose on the property, you could rent it out on an option - meaning the end buyer pays rent, and you deed the house over to them for a small amount of money after a certain number of months go by so as to avoid originating a mortgage (and the laws that go with it).- The other option is foreclosing and renting it to a rehabber until he or she is done fixing it up, then flipping the property to an end buyer or refinancing it and keeping it as a rental (almost like a Hard Money Lender except in this case you the own property).

Example: Tenant gets paid SSI or other regular income by the 6th of each month.Would your PM be open to adjusting the rent-due date so tenant can avoid late charges, and possible avoid evictions due to not being able to catch up on late fees, and Pay or Quit Service fees?

I know calling the lien holder would be the 1st practical thing to do but I am trying to avoid contacting them and bringing too much attention to the deed transfer because of the potential Due-on-Sale clause, but the home will be sold by the time that process could be completed, so I'm not too worried.

I guess I want to avoid spending $500 for nothing.

If you want to avoid commissions altogether, buy stuff that's not on the mls.