When your SELF EDUCATION matches your HUNGER you will do GREAT things.

I invoice my tenants and have created a deposit account that they either deposit rents directly at the bank or ACH them to the bank.

You may avoid the taxes if you deposit the funds in an eligible retirement plan (which includes anIRA) within "3 years and a day" of the date of the COVID-19 distribution (note: compare to a 60-day rollover).

First, reduce retirement contributions to just get the match.

Should I send postcards to properties that seem to match my criteria and offer to purchase off market?

We signed a lease and gave the landlord our deposit.

We handle all underwriting in-house and have partnered with a new screening software that validates bank record deposits with applicant's paystubs in addition to our Transunion reporting.

Also, never again to simply rent out to the first person that hands you your first month's rent + security deposit in cash.

Keep the accounts for the property separate, including a separate account for holding security deposits. 

Sometimes it is the squatter who fakes the whole lease situation and other times it is someone posing as a Property Manager who takes the "tenant's" security deposit and rent under a scam.