Other things I enjoy outside of real estate include playing video games with my friends and practicing my guitar.

This is a terrible business practice hobby landlords tend to use out of fear of actually having to manage their business.

You can go with the practical advice or @John Underwood or contact an attorney for the true legal answer.

The state has also passed a bunch of rules and costs have gone up because the limited license to practice law has been more clearly defined and you have to have an attorney draft every document for your business that is not a standard form.

I would also add investor friendly rent control laws to the list!

'Generally' the practical difference between the two types of lenders are:HML: Typically have more narrowly defined loan terms (this can come in the forms of the percent, points, length of loan, etc.), whereasPrivate Lenders: Generally have more flexible loan terms since you are arranging your financing with someone who is not in the business.Like many things in life, they both have their advantages and disadvantages and one is not necessarily better than the other.

In other words, they were banking on future events they had little or no warning or control over.I have at least 25% equity in my properties, and at least enough cash flow to cover the "fall backs" in a down market.  

Expertise in cash flow, expense analysis and financial controls.  

I put out marketing packages based on actual numbers because all experienced investors will do their own underwriting and make offers based on real numbers but this is hardly the norm.It would behoove you to look at IREM.org as they have financial information from local property managers in every major market and they'll give you the real numbers when it comes to the cost of repairs, water & sewer, heat, electrical, payroll and other information.Once you have this, you should start practicing underwriting deals with your own spreadsheet or one like RealData so you can learn what a deal will actually make versus what BS brokers put out to market.

Being the landlord you can control or adjust the rents to dictate what you need.I hope that helps.