I alway stay away from the condo buy and rent model for all of the reasons stated above.

I have very high aspirations for my RE goals and I use my business as the vehicle to get me there.

Heck it's a GREAT business model-- sitting all day long in a stream of rental cash that is generated from the cash fountains in the pockets of investors who are obligated to cover every hiccup at a property with major surgery.  

That said, we have begun mirroring bed & breakfast models for financial record keeping, and I think that will help us refinance in about six months... time will tell how that goes.Also, JD mentioned "set it and forget it"...

It's just a different business model.I'm here to drum up business, which is no secret, but my model and that of a few other realtors/lenders/CPAs/lawyers/etc on BP is to give value and add information without asking anything in return, regardless of if folks are in our market or in need of our services, or not.

There are lots of rental solutions out there changing things fast, and I think google is even funding one (think cozy, etc)....actually, I like that the business model on a small scale can be pretty simple and low tech (I don't need to know how to code!)....

Im a new aspiring investor looking to connect and learn from other investors.

Be sure to look for a firm with a fee-for service model, not an asset value based model.

Be sure to look for a firm with a fee-for service model, not an asset value based model.  

You can take your NOI or NI from each year you held the investment and put them into an IRR model in an excel spreadsheet.