I also plan to train a VA to find and communicate with contractors and/or handymen in the future, in other words make phone calls for me.But whatever you use a VA for, if it's repetitive computer work, here are some tips I learned from experience: I recommend that you do a few steps yourself and take a video of it while you're doing it using a screen capture program such as Simple Screen Recorder.

Yup, but it helps.It is a simple decision, but has to be based on your own internal needs and desires.

I literally found this community by typing "Best books on Real Estate Investing" into google. 

Do we need to do a full blown PPM or could we structure it another way to help keep it more simple and the costs down?

Simple answer: don't pay for the heat.

Stephen, this is literally a copy/paste from an email I sent one of my partners recently about a duplex we were analyzing (which had 16,200 gross income):1500 - insurance  500 - landcaping & snow removal1620 - 10%management1620 - 10% of gross inc for repairs/maint3252 - $22.95 per 1000 in East Prov (142K assessment)  200 - electric  (common)  800 - water  800 - sewer  405 - 5%misc/turnover/screening/leadtests/etc.It was a quick email so I might have missed some items, but there are some #s for you.Also it's important to distinguish between "repairs when you buy it that you have to do to make it rentable" vs.

If you have a rate of 5% right now and can drop to 4% with $5,000 in closing costs, then you would have to decide how long you would have to keep the loan to save enough money to pay for the costs.Loans work off simple interest, so you do not have to factor in how long you have had the loan to make sense of it.  

really as simple as that.now there are credit card schemes some will charge you money for .. that get you to all at once grab a bunch of credit cards that have teaser rates of 0 interest with the idea that you can flip before the first payment comes due... but getting a bunch of credit then maxing out the cards will crater your score.. so be careful there and if you have an issue with what you used the funds for you now have a bunch of consumer debt at high interest that could bury you.. so be careful.. there are no Zero % loans and for most starting out its even hard to get a HML.. which will be 16 to 14 Apr with at least 20% down plus points and fees

This is simple math, and if you know your market and rehab numbers, it is not very speculative at all. 

Did it myself and got burned because of lack of first hand knowledge regarding the "real cost" of farming something out when you don't have a great Rolodex.Rehab #2 was simple...