For conventional financing, Amerisave is hard to beat, but their closing really sucks and they push you to use their own settlement company, which is questionably legal with respect to RESPA.

And they dont allow you to do the work yourself but they want you to hire a contractor even for simple things and pull permits.I know the law says that you have to provide livable and decent environment for your tenants but how can they impose so strict rules?

So far there's no problem with water or peeling -- being a high moisture environment I'm keeping an eye out for that as a possibility. 

I think its a much better learning environment than taking bootcamp classes with the gurus.

Life is hard when you don't have one who you click with.They are the first people to evaluate my potential purchases, because they are the ones who have boots in the ground in their respective markets, and are ultimately the ones who will be dealing with the prospective properties.

I respect your gusto for going through all that school haha. 

When your tenants see you come and bust your tale to fix their house they give you much more respect than if some third party was managing it.  

I deliberated for some time about sharing the experience, and what I learned, and ultimately decided that if it was of some benefit to this amazing community, I ought to.A quick recapI partnered with a contractor on this deal who was referred to me by someone I really respect (an executive at a big RE company).

But we kept going and we filled our environment with positive thoughts and like minded people.Good luck

@David Faulkner @Jay Hinrichs Your strategy seems to be the approach experienced investors take advantage of in those low cap rate environments.