The larger companies may have the name recognition but they leave some serious meat on the bone when it comes to opportunity for a good broker with high customer service to enter.

Your next step is to talk to a mortgage broker and find out how much you can borrow and at what rate, then you can do some math and start looking at investments that will earn you that spread between cost of money and the new investment.

Go to meetups and meet other investors, analyze deals, call brokers, etc.

Find yourself a mortgage broker to shop the market for your for financing.As far as which to purchase first, home or rental, it depends on what your priority in life is.

Look at who is the real mover and shaker in that space in your area.Mortgage Broker: To a lesser extent they can help out.

Different areas have different customs. 

I can't tell if this was the fault of the company or if the customer didn't uphold their end of the bargain by meeting the weekly time requirements.

Some general “Rules of Thumb” from 25+ Years as a Residential Agent & Broker.

Lot is 75k, which includes all of the work the sellers have already completed in addition to all of the custom windows & sliding glass door for the proposed home.

You might be able to get your Realtor to do that - for a fee at first (maybe applicable toward closing costs/brokers fees when you actually close on the deal), maybe even for free once you have a relationship with them and have bought a property or 2 or 4 proving you actually do make moves and they're not spinning their wheels to do a video walk-through for you.