It's Real Estate law and written into our ethics to be open and honest.I'm sure everyone can attest that fee's suck but at the end of the day everyone is running a business here and nothing is done for free.

These are professionals with additional training and a stricter code of ethics.

David,What is the ethical thing to do?

Hello everyone - I own a single family home in BC Canada which is currently my principle residence, and I also own a duplex that is a rental property in Ontario Canada. 

There are a lot of details you haven't filled in in this post (which is fine), but you will likely need a key principal to co-sign loan and a contract with an experienced property management company.The key principle will co-sign the loan to help show the net worth and liquidity needed for the underwriting department.  

if cashflow is the goal, then a) choose a market to invest in that's cashflow-heavy, first and foremost. note: living in a property for a year doesn't necessarily build equity. your principle paydown year 1 ain't much & if the market dips a bit, you could have no or negative equity at the end of y1. just something to consider.note: appreciation in general is speculation. we can make educated guesses on what's going to happen, based on what HAS happened, but this isn't the 'perk of RE investing' to focus on when you know your goal is cashflow. ignore appreciation for now.if the goal is cashflow, why not just start with a rental?

You have to follow the realtor code of ethics but frankly I think anyone trying to do good business should have these standards.

Dont suppose I'll get it...again, i've never done a real estate deal other than purchasing my house over a decade ago. without experience there's just so much i dont know.networking is a sore spot, i'm just not a people person. thats one reason i look at real estate. since i plan to have any properties managed, i wont have to deal with a lot of people. i imagine you'll scold me for this but whatever. i'm never going to be a people person and thats set in stone. it's something i have to work around not overcome.It seems I always get to the same point with real estate where I take the safe and easy route and leave my $ invested in the stock market. the thing that appeals to me about re, and i'm more focusing on rentals, non b&b, is steady income with an appreciating underlying asset. whereas the market is up and down. i can get totally safe 5% from short term bonds, but i know my principle is withering away from inflation (i dont believe the gubt bogus 3% cpi). with a rental house i could get 5% rental income, and the house will appreciate ~5% a year. that's a huge difference. the other thing i'm somewhat interested in is flips, but same story there, i just dont have the knowledge, and all the reading this forum or watching yt's in the world only gets to the surface as it's all airy generalities.

These are professionals with additional training and a stricter code of ethics.

PS Interest rate on the $680K loan is 3.125%; I have paid off $48K of the principle and have $631.8K left on the loan.