Don't go too fast, after a few your strategy shifts and becomes more focused.10.

Purchased in 2015, did a streamline refi in early 2017. 

I'll gladly exchange a few hours of physical labor to pick the brain of an investor with 25 years of experience (Lesson 2: Come from a place of service when looking to work with a mentor).After a day of driving, loading/unloading the truck, we were approaching home, when my investor friend mentioned that he was looking to shift a property out of a portfolio. 

If Mark did the work and paid for it, that would be an expense that would lower his NOI, if he lowered his rent instead to the same costs that it would be for him to finance the work, his NOI works out exactly the same, he would just be shifting the cost yet he would have less risk and gain on the value from the remodel work. am i thinking wrong on that ?

This is not my area of practice, but I hear from colleagues there are some streamlined options for getting through probate if there is no dispute between possible heirs.   

Bottom line, you are shifting debt from  one loan that is fixed and low interest, to another that is variable and higher interest. 

When dealing with local lenders, it might be easier for the lender to get comfortable with "outside-of-the-credit-box" situations given their intimate knowledge of the neighborhoods in your town, but when working with a national lender they tend to move faster and have more streamlined processes since they're lending tens or hundreds of millions a month across the country and specialize in real estate investment lending.What is your level of experience?

I know they are a bit different in business models but it looks like both companies do a good job of streamlining the buying process for out of state investors which intrigues me.

On a streamline 203K, that is the role of the homeowner, or general contractor if one is hired by the GC. 

But once the investor has been made whole (got his 70k back), then it shifts to a 50/50 profit slip.