But I believe and feel someone should still hold your hand in this process.  

So for the first year i think ill try to manage the property myself, also want to get some landlording experience before i hand over the task to a PM.

I thought about doing a buy out but I am involved in another property with him, hand shake deal.

Having a GC picked out makes this process MUCH smoother because as soon as you are under contract, you can schedule a walk through with your GC and have your formal work bid in hand within a day or two, then your loan officer can prepare your loan app based on the formal work bid and proceed as normal. 

The plain and simple answer is no there were no voices.

Cherry pick from that, and hand this over to the appraiser.

I have been "in real estate" for over 20 years as a landlord and have done a handful of flips.

I’m going to lay out all the numbers here and hopefully some people will chime in with their thoughts. 1 bed/ 1 bath condo in north New Jersey (~10 min bus ride to midtown Manhattan)May 2016 Purchase price: $270kDown payment: $54k (plus 10k in closing costs)Current market value (best estimate): $325kMortgage remaining today: $205kCash flow per month as rental: $300The way I am looking at this is I am deriving my “net equity” (net of selling closing costs) to be:$325k x 94% = ~305k, less 205k (mortgage remaining) = $100k net equity.Therefore, my RoE on an annual basis is $300 monthly cash flow x 12 = $3,600 divided by my net equity of $100k = 3.6%On one hand, it seems like I could use that $100k elsewhere and likely beat 3.6%.

Let's do some simple math.

Please click on the links, give them a read, and share your thoughts in the comments.First is a post that I feel will help not get overwhelmed with the amount of info that is here on BP:https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/5868/52761-the-simple-guide-to-getting-started-on-bpThe second is a post that will help get you focused with your real estate investing goals:https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/5868/52743-im-new-to-bp-any-advice-would-be-appriciatedThe last one is a post that will help you choose an “investor friendly” real estate agent.