Even after investing significant man hours into identifying and categorizing nearly all the sources of private funding for real estate investments, I can say for sure that choosing the right lender for any particular deal takes practice. 

Fortunately I have got to the point where the cash flow is really starting to take off making contracting more practical.

Is this not standard practice?

The BRRR strategy which you will hear a lot about on here sounds good and all and a lot of people practice it but personally for me I would rather work on paying off properties than occurring more debt.

@Scott Trench I'm trying to practice what you preach, but the man is keeping me down!

Is it just a general good practice or is there legal or regulatory ramifications?

Ask my wife about this, I KNOW how to spin a tale. 30 years in sales (and I made good money at it) some theatre training and a lot of practice telling bar stories.

I make it regular practice to teach my sellers about seller carry options and find out what their bottom line is for downpayments, who can more easily carry for a buyer as opposed to massive downpayments.

Plus I had my 8 year old out practicing with the backhoe , he did pretty good .

You can have automatic renewals of a contract but you can have issues if they are not well thought out and drafted properly.AR contracts mat renew for like terms if notice to terminate is not given, if either party misses that date either party could have regrets.Your contract may have an escalation rent clause, fine, but what happens if some city ordinance or some common practice in your area changes, perhaps from some law suit, you can't modify you lease if it automatically renewed.Any lease that can be automatically renewed beyond 3 years can trigger the due on sale clause of your mortgage too.Automatic renewals may be viewed as a tenant having a first right of refusal by some judge, if any change is required it can be adopted and a tenant barks or they agree they may be viewed as first in line since they live there.Some states cover the issue as well, so I'd suggest doing a new lease each year, for the cost of 6 or 8 pieces of paper it can make like easier. :)