As of now there is an implied warranty for all workmanship, but you may have to bring the builder to court to get him to pay.  

Although we are targeting good neighborhoods for appreciation and to make sure we get good tenants who maintains the property well and pay rents on time, having a positive cash flow is an absolutely necessary piece to make sure we make money on the investment from the beginning instead of hoping to make money at the end when we decide to sell it.

Joint venturing, paying a larger sum at the end, hiring contractors on credit are some ways I know.

REPS is tough to qualify for if you have a full time W-2-paying job or company outside of real estate.If you get trapped with PALs, consider utilizing 1231 gain in conjunction with long term rentals.Current year deductions are only great if you can use them now! 

I've been fortunate to learn from others who freely shared their wisdom, and now, I feel compelled to pay it forward.

The only real way to protect yourself is to have the tenants pay for their own utilities. 

So I pay less than $4k for what my PM wants $8k for and  Lowe’s/Home Depot want $12-$15k.

Some of those local competitors will pay all cash, site unseen, with title issues.This is a numbers game, so find the zip codes/neighborhoods with a lot of market activity (i.e., the most dots on a Zillow map search) and delve deeper to see if it's an area of interest.Lastly, when looking up properties, be mindful of taxes.

Now you need to figure out how to find deals and pay for them.

I'm thinking of getting a business credit card to pay for the rehab side of my investments.