I had thought that there might have been one industry-standard method that I had not known about, but your suggestions all make sense.  

Joe Splitrock and Chris Martin shared interesting creative finance methods that may or may not work for you or in today's market.From my own experience it is possible to acquire property with no money as a down payment or out of your own pocket, but that is rare and the exceptional circumstances deal.Creative financing methods have been proven to work but it is a case by case basis and ultimately if you are serious you have to be able to offer a reasonable sum of money to the seller to take the risk of holding a note which he still has to pay even if you default, with little to no real equity from you.

Just curious what most of you are doing, or what the "standard" method is.

I'm curious what methods are popular for determining how much to rent out rooms for.

Any other method is illegal. 

Since I paid off the CH house, I might do a loan with the house and purchase the future ones with this method, or not.

Or if you don't have another method of receiving cash.  

But I get a lot of postcards and a few calls when I first buy a property.Maybe someone can chime in on the "method to that madness", but it seems even more insane.And I'm not talking they offer me more than what I just bought the house for. 

Regarding payments, if you were to hire a CM again, what would be your preferredpayment method?    

I think generally the days method is more advantageous, but I'd check the math both ways to be sure.