Sometimes Local PMs are better as they are more dedicated than national ones which tend to be very busy and not focused on you 

.: @Devan Dorzokit's hard to say exactly what defines a 'major' rehab but 60K certainly seems major I wasn't entirely sure if you had some specific types of work in mind that tend to be problematic.

Along my journey to understand how to acquire my first property, I have encountered people that swear it’s possible to use other people’s money (for down payment, closing cost, rehabs etc) but on the other hand I have investors of 20,30,40+ years who think I am absolutely nuts for even thinking it’s real & make it very clear that I am an idiot for ever believing such a thing and will 100% need to come up with my own funds.

That is where the challenge is because the prices tend to be much higher.

Personally, I tend to be more “speculative” in my real estate investments.  

Your options in the Iowa Quad Cities are going to be Davenport, Bettendorf, and our surrounding mostly newer suburbs, which tend to be more expensive and less likely to cash flow.

On the other hand, residential rentals aligned with appreciation tend to be more stable and are a solid bet if you’re looking at long-term wealth building.

I don't know, but your guy who is self insuring with those numbers is either stupid, nuts, or so filthy rich he doesn't care about taking losses.

It’s great that you’ve already started practicing with NOI and cap rates for evaluating properties, but you're right that smaller properties, like quadplexes or less, are often valued differently.For residential properties with four units or fewer, the market tends to focus more on comparable sales in the area rather than purely relying on income calculations like cap rate.

There are some that are more mindset and some that are nuts & bolts.