Jacksonville is the biggest city in the US, land wise, so even my sister who has lived there all of her adult life (20 years now) does not know all of the areas.

For a private seller, a letter explaining the “probable” source of funds is the sale of the house with the private lender as a back up.

The biggest cause of gentrification is a shortage of housing in the most desirable neighborhoods.

VRBO will remove fake posts if alerted to them, but they're not the most pro-active at policing them.VRBO can be a good source of tenants, make sure you have very good photos, as your photos can be the difference between someone renting from you and from the next property on the list.

Also good for pulling comps from the MLS, having first look at properties, and a good source of side money listing other people's properties.

Biggest roadblock when you want to move forward and place an offer is if the Seller requires POF or pre-approval.

Garden City has been  the biggest surprise here lately.

Late payments  are the biggest red flags IMO.   

I have 300+ rentals and in my experience, over 80% of tenants with multi-year leases fail to fulfill them.Your biggest mistake is that you've set standards and now you're already trying to circumvent them.

I'd love to ultimately be able to do the BRRRR method, but my biggest hurdle will be getting loans without being a W-2 employee.