I had 3 leases of putting it on market and the guy I picked played games and burned me right before Christmas, so had to eat an extra few weeks to get it leased but put it back on and got 3 more applications with a higher rent Lessons learned?

My other fear is non paying tenants, destruction of property etc...what happens when the place burns down because a tenant forgot to put her cigarette out?

Personally, I would LOVE to buy Phoenix during a downturn when CA investors got burned and busted....  

Hard money lenders are a dime a dozen.You can also check in your personal/business network for someone with a large untapped HELOC burning a hole in their pocket.

If you do it for money eventually burn out sets in unless you LOVE money.

When you are a member of a REIA you will know people who do hard money lending and will never get burned because you know these people.

To have them burn that money for something they could easily learn by investing 10k in themselves instead of putting 30k into someone else's pocket.

You could be burning a good deal.

That means if you burn hours or days of a Realtor's time and then buy through someone else, he gets nothing for his work.I have a rehabber who I've helped him buy and sell three different transactions over the last two years. 

However, I know once I deliver the 30 day notice to vacate, they will be very overwhelmed because they just have so much stuff everywhere (they are even storing some of it in the burned out other unit).