I can tell you that the best leads are properties that were on the market, did not sell and you need to go after those leads.

., I am not sure if the customary relationship is the same in Canada as in the US, but when you get into commercial listing in the US, typically the buyer is self represented and the broker is representing the seller.That being said, are you looking to buy or sell property?  

And although I didn't intend to sell as much initially, I ended up really liking selling a lot more than I thought. 

so most people will have to be as leveraged as possible to scale (at the beginning). as in, keep your LTV high and focus on buying 'as much' ($$) RE as possible. this is if you're doing a pretty run of the mill REI strategy like buy and hold. i came across an interesting guideline once: if you could sell today and net 7x+ your annual true net cashflow, you should cash-out/refi, or sell/1031. think of it this way: if your portfolio in a year is worth 1m market value, and you owe 600k, and have a lender that will do a portfolio loan at 80% ltv, you could cashout refi and get 200k to play with (minus closing costs). when you compare the now-lower cashflow from the existing portfolio (higher LTV & maybe different rate), to what you can do with 200k cash, THAT'S where it gets fun. maybe you lose 1k/mo in cashflow on the original portfolio (literally just made up a number, idk), but you can gain 2500/mo in cashflow with that 200k.. then doing the cashout/refi earned you a net increase in your monthly profit of 1500/mo, plus you're getting debt paydown and appreciation on "more" real estate, probably getting bigger tax benefits, etc.

I think Installments sound strange and like a lot of problems waiting to happen, not to mention the risk of not being able to sell and then being out the carry costs, etc. 

This would significantly affect the resale value of the property if you ever went to sell or ever wanted to refinance.

If it isn't, sell and hopefully pocket some profits to invest in something else.If it is for you, you could repeat the process and buy another owner-occupant property and rent our your previous.

So I came to peace with selling.  

I try to buy with seller financing now, and I renovate with Home Depot line and our own cash, and then refinance or sell later. 

Obviously there will be a fee a pay for the services of course but i’m noticing most CPA are trying to sell me a packaged deal meant for REI who have larger portfolios with complex tax planning/strategy needed and I haven't found someone who fits my need.