But, to protect your friends money, make sure you give him a note, mortgage, lenders title insurance, and list him as the lender on the property insurance policy.Most likely, you won't be able to get bank financing to purchase, but refinancing a few years later could be fairly likely.

After my taxes, insurance costs and PM (fixed hard costs you’ll have each month), let’s say I have 500 dollars.  

So the way around it is to get a property manager, which costs you 10% of rents in fees, so you'll be covered under the PM's E&O insurance.

If you had your own attorney handle it, then they should have insured that your loan is properly recorded, so not a lawyer, no legal advice, but I'd think that worst case, you'd need to foreclose and take the house back if he doesn't perform.   

But I'd like to run the numbers in the scenario as I move out after 2 years living there to check the cashflow- Financing: owner occupied conventional loan - Downpayment: 5% - Interest rate: 4% - Loan period: 30 years (fixed) - Vacancy of 5%, Repairs of 5%, Capex of 5%, and PM of 10% - I assume I can get 10% discount based on how long it's been on the market (purchase price of $719,100) - I used Realtor.com from the link and based on purchase price of $719,100 it gives me prop tax of $749- I relied on the listing agent data of $92 per month for home insurance - I relied on the listing agent data of $112.50 per month for water, $112.50 for sewage, $95 for garbage, and $60 for lawn care (assuming the tenants pay for their own electricity and gas) - I left PMI to be 0 since I do not know how to calculate this Result: Based on assumptions and MLS listing, this property cashflow -$1,280.00 (aka, a horrible investment).

Make sure this GC is licensed and insured. 

The loans are assumable so even if you intend to sell the buyer could assume, much easier to modify the Agency loan versus a CMBS loan.The other players (outside of commercial banks) are life insurance companies.

One who is licensed , insured , does quality work and delivers on time .  

Would an attorney eat up all my cost savings of not getting title insurance?

Very few rentals close by (at least for now, in winter), but desirable location.We will do some updating no matter what:New laminate floor in kitchen/hallSiding needs replacing (have some insurance $ for that)Fresh paintNeeds new windows (maybe).Needs a bunch of concrete work (garage floor, driveway, stoop, walk to door).With those improvements we should be able to get at least $1000/mo.A room addition to add a large ensuite Bedroom/bath, and a laundry room to get the washer, dryer out of the garage, the bid came in at 59000 (This includes the siding).