Building your team, lenders, title companies, Realtors, insurance people is the biggest deal in this business, I believe, and a close second for BRRRR is knowing your numbers better than all of them to keep them honest.Max ltv on a refinance is 75% for the most part. 

As for prevention, the biggest thing is to avoid any wood touching the ground.

The biggest lesson that I learned was learning the lingo and what step there are to take, the components of the deal.

The first and biggest problem is that all lenders that I know of will only lend on a transaction that is arm's length, meaning not being purchased from a family member.

My biggest struggle is that I am OCD about timelines and communication....dealing with lenders, escrow officers, other brokers and sometimes clients that ignore timelines and communications brings me a lot of daily frustration.

This is the biggest investment of my life and I feel like I should be making a more educated decision rather than just picking the first person whom happened to have a listing I was interested in.  

The biggest pro is that I won't have to involve my mom in any way.

The biggest difference I can find having been on both sides of this is simple marketing -- Realtors can use the Realtor logo, receive created Realtor designations if they pay more to take association classes, which they can use to promote themselves (more marketing like the logo), and may benefit from the Realtor commercials promoting their membership. 

The biggest perk of having a license is access.

We mostly want it to pay for itself and hopefully make a small profit until we can retire and use it as a summer retirement home.As far as income and vacancy projections, a quick internet search uncovered 2 other similar cottages nearby with availability calendars and price rates for the next year.