Essentially it's saving you 5% interest when it could be earning you 15+% cash, a poor trade off.With cash, you need to either buy undervalued homes or increase equity in a way that more than compensates your investment.

Everything from here on is regulated to a sub-trade who will come in for a few days (Sometimes simultaneously) and do their thing.

You can hire subs who will pull each permit for their trade.

They're a trade group.

The trade-off there is that it is easier and takes less time to evict a tenant for not paying than to foreclose on a homeowner for default.

Not even institutional properties class A are trading for that except a 5.5 to 6 cap in urban core New York etc.Even with owner finance this property doesn't work.

You'll learn lots with your small multi-family property and you can trade or move up as you build equity, income, credit, and experience.

The Federal Trade Commission has plenty of warnings about this.

These are the best books that I've found for beginners for fix-and-flip and wholesaling:------------------------------------------------"FLIP: How to Find, Fix, and Sell Houses for Profit"Rick Villani and Clay DavisISBN-10: 0-07-148610-0ISBN-13: 978-0-07-148610-1"Getting Started in Real Estate Day Trading"Larry GoinsISBN-13: 987-0-470-41862-8 (cloth)------------------------------------------------As for earnest money deposit, it's not legally required for a valid binding contract (EMD is a deposit not consideration), unless the parties specifically agree in the contract that EMD is required or there is an unusual situation like California pre-foreclosure of an owner occupied home (in that situation CA law requires a nominal cash EMD of about $100 if I recall correctly), and some other states have some inane consumer protection laws regarding pre-foreclosure of owner occupied homes.Having said all that, if you are buying from a For Sale By Owner (FSBO), then I suggest using a 0% interest promissory note for the EMD, that is redeemed upon completion of the inspection period or upon contract assignment, whichever occurs first.

Only certain trades require specific licenses.