Could we just use RE lawyers and save on closing costs or should I play it safe and still go through RE agents?

My Naivety tells me to go slow and safe.

Slow and safe - pay it off or sell; 200-250k equity and 2500 a month cash flow(when paid off) sounds like a great start.

Email your education documents to [email protected] AND cc [email protected] just to be safe.

Be wary because many investors tend to forget to add in things like vacancy (safe 10% of monthly rent in most cases), repairs/maintenance (10% month), property management (10%), taxes, insurance, any utilities the owner pays, etc.  

you can go on crime reports.com and check to see if the neighborhood is safe.

Just asking - did you have concerns about owner-occ seller financing regarding the SAFE Act or Dodd-Frank?  

LTV is used when getting funding and the lender, in an effort to keep his/her principle safe, typically wants 65%-70% max LTV allowing for a 30%+ safety cushion of equity.Next problem is your offer process.

For me, these markets provide opportunity for short term cash flow investing or quick turns (flipping), but are not safe wealth building markets (unless you're buying at the bottom of a recession like 2009-2010).I'm not an advocate of cashing out of mature markets, to speculate.  

Besides being on top of repairs and providing safe, clean, quality rentals, we've sent gift cards to tenants when they've turned around things fast after we've requested it, like lease renewal responses/paperwork, renters insurance declarations, etc.