Here is my simple Top 5:1.Review the market – Understand the trends and conditions in the area.2.Analyze the property and the numbers – Ensure the deal makes financial sense.3.Visit the property – There’s no substitute for seeing it firsthand.4.Meet the team – Whether it’s your property manager, builder, or contractor, relationships matter.5.Complete inspections and appraisals – These protect you from costly surprises.If all these boxes are checked and the numbers work for your goals, then it’s likely a solid deal.

That may not apply to you, as a financial professional, but I thought I would share the story.Obiously you could re-lever your portfolio to bring the ROE back up, but then you have to place those borrowed funds somewhere that nets a high enough return that the portfolio is ahead, given the drag of the interest and any transaction fees.    

Regardless, you might find the copy & paste info below helpful:)--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

Financially I do not need to have it rented tomorrow, I can wait a bit.

There was an onboarding phase, which was mostly about uploading our financial docs and answering questions.

2) Subsidizing rents:- S8 and other programs statisitically only train tenants how to be dependent on the free handouts.If you really want to make a difference, try basic financial education for tenants and the financial demographic they come from!

They have no credit history, so you have no idea how responsible they are financially.

It’s astounding how many fake documents are circulating today—you can find everything from fake references and stolen Social Security numbers to falsified income documents.To combat this, we rely on tools like Plaid, Verifast, and Snappt, which are excellent for verifying financial information and detecting fraudulent activity.

If your current lender can’t accommodate you, explore STR-focused lenders like Host Financial or Lima One Capital, or consider bridge loans to buy time while you build your rental history.

The house is only in my name at this point, which was intentional when we married, and when we moved out of it as a primary residence to hopefully avoid ex’s gotta financial pursuits.