What is critical to do before a lot of this though is develop a game plan or investment strategy that fits your goals and overall intentions when working the field of real estate in general.  

Real estate is a cash intensive game and successful investors always run out of their own money at some point.

Present your game plan and what skills you bring to the table (good researcher, social person, marketer, etc), then ask the broker what he brings to the table - Training?

While there's potentially more upside with equity, debt and preferred equity deals feel more stable.There's actually quite a few players in the game at this point.Fundrise.com has just launched two new "eREITs" that provides diversification among several properties.RealtyShares.com is another good one.  

Should anyone from the South Texas area wish to arrange a Cash Flow 101 game, I would gladly be willing to setup a game at a local venue to chat and learn about our investing habits.  

If you are ONLY getting $4k/yr long term historical average on a $200k house, that is 2%, so definitely not the right time or place to play that game. coastal SoCal historical average (going back 40 years) is around 6% ... with 20% down (5-to-1 leverage) that is a 30% average annual return; that is the example I use because that is the example I know, not sure about Oregon but suspect it may be better than the 2% in your example. 

Hello, my name is Morgan my husband and I are new to the real estate game and are currently trying to find a good " investor friendly" title company.

Our web site gives prospective renters all the information they need to know, including maps to the location, pictures, square footage, rental policies, rental applications, links to our background check, etc.

In the short term, pay what whatever the loan servicer says you need to pay is.Medium term, a QWR is a whole different ball game and you are at least getting things in writing and working with compliance people, not useless call center idiots. 

I'm from the NYC metro area and not terribly long ago found this forum on the web.