They do the heavy lifting and I am able to move a few million a year through their process. 

He was 100% right though.You can try to cashflow a property in NOVA with a minimal downpayment on one hand and crap in the other and see what fills up faster. 

I relied totally on JWB & Horizon to guide me thru the process, but as I'm getting closer to closing the deal, I'm getting cold feet realizing that I should have done all of my homework myself. what if it's a mistake and certainly don't want any legal issues. do I need to register my LLC in FL as a foreign entity doing business there since it'll be collecting rents?

It is a slow and gradual process.  

I also have contact information for a lender who promises to beat VA in the loan process.

-our new underwriting standards account for pre-funding partial years for property taxes-we also have a much more sophisticated capex review process that builds annual reserve budgets-the biggest challenge now is just "enforcing" the budget across multiple teams. 

In the loan application it asks if borrower has another debts or loans etc in process .

I will be in the process of looking for my first rental property this year. 

I recommend you do this off platform because FF is clunky and slow and there are no penalties for doing so, unlike Airbnb- if it's a good fit for both of you, you proceed with whatever your process is (usually this will be an application, background check, lease, deposit)I say all this just to show that yes, it's cheap to list it there and in my experience it is VERY effective, but it requires legwork and follow up on your part.

I've had my fill on reading and listening and doing independent research on REI topics and I'm ready to apply it and learn in the real world.If there's any investors in Arizona looking for some extra help and willing to mentor, I'd love to connect and learn the ropes of REI on a deeper level and get more hands on.