Full doc, 20% down on purchase and rehab, hard credit pulls, for a loan you intend to get in and out of.

@Collin H.With credit card defaults and auto defaults on the rise as well as overall debt - people will start tightening the belts and first thing they will get rid of is spending on travel and vacations etc So reading this I am not surprised - how has 2024 been compared overall to last year ?

Start with BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginners Guide (free).

I have a pre-approval through First United Bank for mortgage no less than $40,000, and for anything under $40,000 I work with Oklahoma Credit Union.

Focus on making sure your first property is basically maintenance-free (barring unforeseen circumstances) before thinking two or three ahead.

This would be done by leveraging private funding for down payments that will be payment free for two years but then paid out with a balloon payment plus interest on the back end via a tax excluded sale of our current rental property in two years, giving us a very large payment of tax-free income.Thoughts?

Tenants are a gamble and so is court but you have a 5 year tenant that paid during covid when courts were closed so I’d give that some credit.  

The first discussion is usually for free.

Even though I was cash challenged I held onto my house (putting past due payments on the backend) and had equity to sell, pay off debts, and get my credit in check.

So you can work for free or you can use the deposit for what it's there for, covering damages, cleaning etc.