As I reflect even now, I’ve beat tremendous odds growing up in foster care until I was 7 and I always had doubts I would ever find success but I kept my faith and having the support of my wife was big as well.

Yes, most banks have “MLOs” that work in house, odds are however, they will be significantly less knowledgeable than your average independent broker.

The truth is no one knows what is around the corner and there is no single right answer for the state or the city.The facts are....the current expansion is quite long in the tooth and odds are we are past the peak.

I live in Florida and potentially looking at small 8-15 unit apartments in the midwest, Texas, anywhere where the market makes more sense than inflated Florida prices.

The odds of finding a no money down are slim unless the seller is really desperate.

second, i like to look around at what other units are renting for in the same area, if they are higher that means you have room to move yours up too (which sometimes means improving the units, but this is based on the comps in the neighborhood), if yours are the same as everyone else then you will know that they are stable and can move up every year 1-3% due to inflation, costs of living, etc...  

Odds of finding one for sale though,   low to zilch.

Of course, if the deal does really well, odds are none of your investors will complain, which is how the SEC becomes aware of most issues. 

I understand that, as a buy-and-hold investor, it is important to set aside a certain amount of cash in order to cover maintenance and capital expenditures.It seems a bit odd, though, that these are typically expressed as a percentage of the gross monthly income.

To me, I will be totally fine if appreciation can follow inflation, and in a long run, buy and hold would have some appreciation, I believe.