I looked in the forum and there were some old posts about contractor referrals but most of them were 5+ years old and I wasn't able to find half of the names mentioned by googling. 

I forget the address, but I would love to find something like that again.

Hey Connor the way I look at it is depending on what your plan is with the property, if you plan to keep it for the long term and the numbers work (Cash flow, equity, Appreciation etc) then negotiate a price you are comfortable with and go for it.

Both of these groups tend to want more business and so are not terribly hard to find.Contractors are hyper local, and typically, as a flipper, once I find some good ones, I don't share them with others because I don't want them to be too busy for my projects.  

Exterior paint/siding can range in price but doing exterior work transforms the look of the house before buyers/renters step inside.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) defines Business Credit:Access to cash and credit is a business’s lifeline.

If you cash out equity in a property, you are "borrowing" that money from the lender.

It's a very common mistake where an investor sold and bought properties and then when it's tax time they find out they didn't do the right process to actually qualify as a 1031 exchange.  

The, around 5%, rate is currently lower than what you'd likely find now (rates are just starting to dip back into the 5's for investment properties), but I don't think that keeping your rate here should impact your decision. 

Recently I started working with a college kid who is doing some wholesaling to make some money and get his foot in the RE door.He had read about house hacking with a partner, where he applies for the FHA loan and finds a partner to cover the down payment.