They are always relying on independent minded, unreliable subs, and always balancing too many jobs that they underbid in order to get the work.

At what point we are in depends on which city, economy, jobs, population inflow vs outflow, home supply/demand, etc.Terry 

The independent mortgage brokers with multiple sources while running their own shop are harder and harder to find but that is exactly what you need.

I might also be sick of the annual audits interrupting my life, another fun characteristic of commercial loans.

This has been very easy for me as both a DIY landlord who does almost all his own work and a financial independence frugalist.

Big into personal finance and love the financial independence mindset.

My wife and I wanted to flip this house because we love real estate, we want to be financially independent, and we want to improve communities in the beautiful city of Detroit.

They should provide an appraisal, of course, but if you want to pay for your own independent appraisal they shouldn't have a problem with that.As @Jim K. mentioned, going lower-tier - esp for a new investor looking OOS - is a risky move.

Good luck building wealth and becoming financially independent!

In the spirit of the holiday I would probably offer to compensate them for it after they told me what it was worth, but if it was anything more than $50 I would make them prove the value independently before I gave them anything else, and if it was significant and my contract with the company didn't waive them of damages, I would file against the company's insurance.