Personally, I have discovered huge pains from having any paint work being done after cabinets and flooring. 

Only by buying and selling your first properties will you discover your strengths and what you can best capitalize on and what parts of the process you prefer to delegate.

The trouble is, depending on which institution the 5 year mortgage is with, the pre-payment penalties can be as high as 4.5 per cent of the balance. ($4,500.00 per $100,000 of mortgage balance)2.

ThanksFull disclosure, I'm a lender in Ca, and have a relationship w/ Lima One, but I don't use them, nor any of the 'institutional hard money' that vanished from the market and then is slowly inching their way back in, with restrained guidelines. 

I was set to close on a duplex the other day and as I got to the property to get a contractor bid I discovered that the landlord has rented out the unit through the management company he uses. 

This would allow you to spread funds across a few institutions to stay under the $250K FDIC limit in each.Of course, if your intention is to invest in assets such as real estate, you need to consider how long you would actually be holding in excess of $250K in cash assets, which are all that are covered by FDIC. 

@Al YousefI would check with other lending institutions in your areas but, those terms are pretty standard.

I've had two deals fall apart there based on some serious termite and other WDO issues discovered during inspections.

I discovered BP when my brother sent me a webinar invite as I had expressed curiosity in the real estate world.

I discovered that he not my lender, and the lender kicked him out as a broker because he stolen mortgage payment from clients that should of gone to the lender.