I am hoping to skip the learning experience cost of bad PM's this time.

I'm currently working with my Credit Union, but am open to other lending sources. 

I have a relatively good credit score (780) and 20k in student debt. a good. 

the biggest issues are that the available tenant base drops dramatically around October and doesn't pick up again till the end of the school year.People are no different than animals in that regard.They want to be settled and hunkered down in a property before the school year and/or bad weather starts.Quality tenants with good financial backgrounds don't want to move their families in the middle of an icy,snowy winter for obvious reasons,and good college students have already started school in August.Many of the few available tenants will have questionable backgrounds like recent job loss,previous eviction,bad credit,difficult income verification and don't make 3 times the rent,criminal records,etc.   

Talking to the home seller is a most critical skill, see my BP blog "Make money without banks or credit" for how to talk to sellers.

Want to get feedback from the group.Here are the community statsMetro pop 280,000, up 12%since 2000, up 25% since 1990Unemployment 4.8%Median family income $53,000Median home price $101,00022 lots, 19 tenants, no POHAvg rent is $197, avg market rent $214 Rent includes city water, private septic, trash, lawnEstimated expenses are 49%I got a quote to sub-meter and requesting a $10,000 credit at closing so I can get that done when I purchase.

You could prescreen them, but most people aren't going to pay application fees or allow you to run credit, etc without seeing the place first.

Also, try your best to close on every deal you put under contract or you might start to get a bad rep in your area.As far as being a broke newbie and mailing/cold calling here is my suggestion.

I know with my credit history I can get a great rate, but in order to do that I would need to have the property deeded to me.My question: In order to get the best rate should I have the deed contain only my name as the sole owner in order to get the best financing?

Hello all,I'm looking for areas of Fort Worth to invest in buy-and-hold properties, but there is a tremendous amount of competition and I have lost out on several properties with multi-offer situations despite having perfect credit and financing in place.