Information today is more symmetrical than ever so it's really just a matter of executing on that information, and who is executing more efficiently. 

https://ivydirect.com/Very transparency and efficient.

Your loan officer already has an incentive to find cost effective and efficient people (since that'll let them do more business, after all), but if you think you can find cheaper, you are allowed to.

This is to avoid discouraging people from replacing older, less efficient windows with new more efficient ones.The requirements that have been mentioned thus far relate to current IRC which is minimum width no less than 20", minimum height no less than 20", no less than 5 square feet area in a first floor "grade level", or 5.7ft2 area 2nd story or basement (these are "clear opening" measurements which is the area that is unobstructed when the window is fully open/ the area that a human can pass through, not overall window dimensions btw).

My question is how do I set up my first investment efficiently?

Property managers shouldn't make your life harder, they should make it efficient and headache free. 10% is such a small fee for peace of mind.

As with any investment, the lessons learned are to just become more efficient and strategic with decision making(when to repair / replace / upgrade) and whether to do myself or utilize vendor.

He closed off one of the rooms and turned it into an efficiency that he’s renting in the back to a friend (couldn’t see it) and also turned the shed into a guest house without permits so he had to take it down and now its basically a tiny room with a bath.

Sometimes margins are already pretty slim on certain property types so having a PM, who upcharges for the small stuff, handle those requests may not be efficient.

When do you get to the point where you start to prune your investments to make your business model more efficient.