When I said you need to "confirm a moveout," I meant going to your rental and verifying that the tenants have left the building and taken their crap with them.

Ed is so full of crap I feel I needed to wipe my phone off (every time I actually got to talk to him anyway) with tp.....

Again, talk to your lender.I normally underwrite repairs and CapEx at 15% combined.

A proactive agent will net you more money with you paying 6% than will a crap agent being paid X%.

Try meetup.com or the Bigger Pockets events section.Any rental property you purchase should be offset by the income it will generate so if you get a duplex that rents for $2000/mo (both sides combined), you will be able to count $1500/mo of that as income you can use to qualify for the next deal.Just make sure your numbers really work well.

That doesn't mean you will not need some money but if you have 10k and you can borrow hard money the two combined could get you in and out of a project thats not too size-able.

The actual cash flow over the holding period is the cash flow contribution to the return rate (combine with  market appreciation, equity pay down, etc). 

How does the 25% equity spread on the combined total come out higher than the spread on each property added together?  

I was surprised he put $750K down on the two, selling price $1.1 million combined, about 10 years ago.

Here is some info on the product: Product Overview Combines home purchase or refinance (limited cash out) with home improvement financing in one loan with one closingProvides a convenient way for borrowers to make renovations, repairs, or improvements totaling up to 75% of the "as-completed" appraised value of the property with a first mortgage, rather than a second mortgage, HELOC, or other more costly financing method.Funds can be used for repairs or renovations that are permanently affixed and add value to the property.