Anyone repping themselves to be a lender and they want origination fees up front, outside of escrow, ABSOLUTELY can't be trusted.This is the way it works for those who have never been through the closing process:After your loan comes out of your lenders UW process, there will be a closer assigned to the loan and they will start interacting with title to coordinate closing. 

Mark ZuckerbergI also added #AskBP podcast 023 which talks about the first thing a new REI should do.https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2015/05/2...http://www.biggerpockets.com/startherehttp://www.biggerpockets.com/meethttps://www.biggerpockets.com/alertsHow to Use @Mentions on BiggerPocketshttps://www.biggerpockets.com/ruleshttps://www.biggerpockets.com/termshttps://www.biggerpockets.com/inviteshttps://www.biggerpockets.com/perkshttps://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/categorieshttps://www.biggerpockets.com/rei/glossary/https://www.biggerpockets.com/webinarSimply, bone up on the areas that you need to expand knowledge in such as, Forums, Marketplace, Learn, Network, Analyze and Resources.Feast on the Podcasts, #askbp Podcasts, blogs and webinarsLastly, this site thrives on interactions and as such we encourage two way exchanges and look forward to educational and thought provoking ideas relevant to REI.

I've got a decent down payment saved and add more every month.Next steps:Start interacting on BP forums regularly.Find & learn 2-3 neighborhoods worth investing in.

My intuition is that as long as the total cost of rent plus utility bill back is equal to or less than they will pay somewhere else I should be fine. 

When one has gotten so "big" that they dismiss the notion out of hand of interaction monthly with their clients it may well be advisable to re-examine their customer service goals.

After experiencing a few webinars, reading the information and seeing the interaction from this site, I feel I can find the information and the successful people I need to help me complete any missing parts to my team and who can guide me to the success I am looking to become.

All rents, applications, business cards and tenant interactions run through my mgt co.  

While the interface isn't as polished as cozy.co, it has many more features. tenantcloud.com was a close second but I found the interface much less intuitive than innago.com.

Last thing I'll lob over to you:  have you interacted with your insurance company here? 

This is a bit more intuitive, though, because its tough to quantify.Now, appreciation is very complex, so these points are really directional and there is definitely more statistics and math involved.