We initialed and signed in front of a notary republic and now she wants to quit paying.

I have not made millions as an investor, I just spent more time that I like to admit in "the trenches" (10+ years).First of all the initial due diligence is extremely important needless to say to confirm the collateral is foreclosable but to identify the potential exit strategies for that loan and have a plan in place.

Thankfully, Flips & BRRRRs have a lot of the same initial steps and so targeting one doesn't make the other impossible (or even difficult). 

Why is your initial reaction to jump to it being the owners fault?

Kenny initially I am focused on south Chicagoland area (the market i know amd understand) to start and would factor in the costs of a property manager.

@Adam Schneider  -  Initially it was just going to be for the agents in my brokerage, but I had a lot of people say that they had friends that would also like to learn more about investing.

Not opposed to looking outside the area, but felt it would be better to be close by for an initial investment.Andrew

We become our own bank (with a HELOC) and don’t have to stress over the initial monies to purchase and rehab a property.

Will the property need initial repairs upon purchase?

Since the beginning, there was not any conversation or update initiated by the PM and I always had to track him down after I noticed an issue.