I figured I’d come here to share one of my more headache-inducing mistakes (and lessons learned) to hopefully save someone else from ending up in the same situation!

My first rental I made the mistake in keeping the utilities in my name as a landlord.

I might of made my first mistake by placing an offer without having backing.

I have seen many people post for advice, get an answer that is overwhelmingly steered toward one side, and the OP still decides to go in the other direction.There are so many people here on BP who have been there before and want to help you avoid making the same mistake they made.It is far better to have a unit vacant for one month than to rent to the wrong person and spend time, money and emotions on an eviction and repairs. 

I know this may be a lot but I want to make sure I understand what I'm doing and not make too many mistakes.

True, it's not as easy as some people would have you believe which is why I'm taking the time to educate myself before I go out and make a potentially costly mistake.  

I learned a good deal from those mistakes and consider myself better off from the experience. 

Unfortunately, I've never meet a HML that would put themselves 2nd...even if they were providing less than 10% of the leveraged funds.The mistake REI makes is to think of a HML as a loan to begin with...it's not.  

I would like to go for it but I'm afraid of potentially making a mistake from the financial perspective.

I really use the podcasts to gain insightful information, as I like to learn from others' mistakes (instead of continuing to make my own, lol).