I understand that placement fee if one month is often standard for PM companies, but usually a lot of work and effort goes into placing a tenant.

These can sometimes have more flexible terms than standard construction loans, especially if you can demonstrate strong income through your bank statements.

@Tyler Kesling  Adding to the above great points, start with 2-4 units as it's standard conventional financing.  5+ units is commercial and somewhat of a different ballgame.   

For someone that's not as conservative, or a different view on the cycle, they might have a different opinion than me on all of this.2) Sponsor quality check: (takes about 45 minutes per deal)I believe that a great sponsor can take an average looking deal and make it great, and that in mediocre sponsor can take a fantastic looking deal and make it bad (especially if there is a severe recession).

Is this structure standard, though, in terms of capping investor returns at 12%?  

I guess my problem with being too up front about seeing their place is that I don't feel like I'm in a position of power right now to decline people since it's hard enough to find people that I want to even get to that point in the application process in the first place, but I have to snap out of that mindset and have to instead come from a place where I make them believe that I have a lot of other applicants and that it's my standard policy and it's something they'll have to go through if they want my place.....ESPECIALLY if I decide to only take 1st & security from them rather than 1st/last/security.Thanks again!

Always buy the best quality property you can afford.

Now the tricky part is creating your underwriting standards and system.

If the rental income doesn’t sufficiently cover the debt payments by their standards, they’ll limit the loan amount, even if the property is worth more.You could try a few alternatives:•Look for lenders who specialize in commercial real estate and have more flexible DSCR requirements.

I suppose here is a good time to ask you all, the “more expert than me-s” in the thread: on a scale of “5% return standard deviation bond market” to “15% return standard deviation stock market”, where would you put the unleveraged, post expense rental income of a well managed (aye, there’s the rub) SFH portfolio?