I believe in learning and growing together as fellow entrepreneurs, so I'm glad to be on here helping others while I scale out my PML operation.

You mentioned that you're not interested in grants or fundraising, I'm curious what type of operating budget and actual program you have in mind.

You can continue to operate and if there is no fire and no decks collapse you are fine. 

Depends on what kind of property you are operating.

You can quickly see how they operate and understand who is professional and who is not.

Moving to a portfolio model—where a pod (1 PM + 2 VAs) manages all aspects of 200+ units—streamlined operations and improved accountability.

While I don't have any horror stories, per se, I have heard of people having a tenant for a year then causing $20k in damages upon move out, while skipping town to not be found again (this was a CA buyer buying from a turnkey operator in AL).  

I am a real estate wholesaler operating for the past 4 years in the DFW Metroplex and I found that it's better to keep things simple, and not, deal with real estate agents who don't want you biting off (what they view as) their profits.

., if I’m dealing with someone in, say, Chicago or Austin, I know precisely which local operators are closing quickly and which boutique lenders are staying nimble.

There are also additional costs of operating and maintaining an LLC, like separate bank accounts, annual report filings, tax filings, etc.2.