As an investor it allows you to save up money quicker to buy pure rentals that have higher downpayment amounts of 20%. 

We pure rentals in addition to personals future rentals.

We live a transient lifestyle being military so a lot of our property is personal with also pure rentals through in. 

It was a pure oversight to not include the items they wanted in the contract and I'll be sure not to make that mistake again.Jerry, that's a great resource and idea to have to remove items from properties.

Experience,pure and simple.Always have a GC with you for your first dozen times you look at properties and write down everything they say about how much money per square foot it would cost to repair or replace the bones(roof,plumbing,electrical,foundation)and upgrade redecorating costs.After a while it will come naturally to you and you won't need a GC by your side every minute during evaluations.

Things like the bath sink have nicotine stains but the vanity itself is ok.

I'm curious, on a pure financial basis, what is a realistic rate of pyramiding for homes in this range?

Which many times results in a flood of tenants moving in/iout at the same time,  pure stress.  

The reason I don't is purely selfish: since my husband is an agent, we can use the referral system to officially refer a potential buyer/seller (if they want) directly to the agent who we use for our deals. 

The real test of a lender to loan you in pure entity, is to apply without your SSN in all documentation you send them only EIN, that is the only way to know that they are lending you to your entity and not based on your personal, and of course, NO INDEMNITY CLAUSE whatsoever.