Failure to get approval prior to this could result in your financing document being accelerated, and your property foreclosed on.

I have a lot better results telling them a little about myself and asking them some simple questions- nothing too specific.  

Redfin and others will have the same results, so don't count on them for much. 

I also do lower income rentals, so the turnover costs can be a bit prohibitive compared to the value of the house and I have to screen through a bunch of applicants and as a result it can take up to a month for me to rent one.  

This way every time a home gets listed you get at least an automatic email with the details.Investors and agents are a difficult match.

now if they had built an addition on the house w/ out permits you may run into an issue with the square footage not matching tax records but a roof... not likely.

In the article, he talks about how the key to achieving massive results is to share your goals with the "universe" so that you can connect with people who can help you along the way.  

As I've been crunching my numbers I always tend to come to the point where I realize, I will be occupying half of  this 2-unit property so when it tells me the cash flow I get a negative result.

Combine that with some ability to extrapolate possibilities of future results based on decisions you think would be good and have many exit strategies.

I like this one for several reasons ... first, you can normally get a bigger discount buying all cash, Second, it matches the leverage against the risk profile, meaning that you are unleveraged in the beginning when you are learning and there are a lot of uncertainties with a distressed, unrented property, you then reduce this uncertainties with the 1st 3 R's before you leverage up.