David Greene's BRRRR book and other things that I've read say cash works just fine, as long as you make sure to get your preapproval for the refi before entering into a deal to make sure your exit strategy is in place.  

It would have been totally fine and we could have slowly recouped our money. 

He always says that nothing works in the northern climes but it is working for me just fine.

I'm starting to look larger in the range of $500-1.5M and if I want to continually buy these saving the 20% down each time is going to limit me.I've talked to my bank and they are fine giving me the 80% on a good deal up to 1.5M but won't finance the entire amount. 

They can then produce reports per customer.Every month, they would settle with customers, either sending them the excess cash flow or receiving money if shortage.Model your setup after this, and you should be fine.

If you must do a turnkey rental, fine, but I still think the superior investment is something professionally operated and managed and truly passive with all the benefits of real estate.

Here in Vermont we can call he fire chief who can issue a violation and fine.

Eventually you can use some software/apps, but pen and paper or a Word/Google Doc is fine for now. 

I am fine with gradual appreciation and generating cash flow with time, but the tenant market should be reasonable. e.g.

In a long run, the real estate market will be fine, as vaccine and cure medicine will be developed within one or two years.