I understand most brokers want agents to go full-time but I honestly cant do that at this moment. 

Im not playing in SW WI, but i do in Northern WI, you really need to know your market and numbers, compas are tougher to understand, but I do well im my markets, the majority of my portfolio is either rural, or in towns below 15K people. if you have a good team and a PM that operates at a high level, those markets can be gold, but its not for everyone, its not easy, but generally there is little competition and high demand@Michael B. population of 70K is quite big in most of WI other than Milwaukee, Green Bay, Madison and Appleton, there are not many cities north of 50K populations. 

Would anyone suggest completing a formal business plan when starting a real estate business or simply understanding and following you goals and objectives?

Everything else is in order, except that the building owner has refused to allow the insurance company to add the lender as an additional loss payee (which as I understand, is both required and standard by lenders in order to be able to loan).Are there any other options here?

Unfortunately neither was really a Brrrr ... mostly because I didn't really understand that strategy when I was doing them, and I left too much capital invested that I should have cashed out (live and learn).One thing I especially appreciate about GSCU is they allow me to purchase up to 10 properties with mortgages on the secondary market before I have to go to commercial lending.

@Michael TootelianThrowing in my 2 Cents - From a lending perspective, it's important to understand if the condos are warrantable or non-warrantable.

I understand it's a slightly uncommon situation (or maybe not, it might just be my lack of experience), but I was hoping the great community here would share their opinion on this.

It’s good to keep in mind what businesses and attractions are going in or out of a certain neighborhoods to have a better understanding if a property has potential (ex. properties around the new soccer stadium will likely creep up in value).

I can understand you want to recoup your investment by doing the cash out refi, however your goal should be to also cashflow after the Refi. 

I'm trying to learn about my area's real estate market, which areas are good and rising in value, the trajectory of the market, approximately where it is in the real estate cycle, good places to look for deals, etc. W...