The condition of the properties is a pretty quick check.

Not sure if it helps, as I'm in the Youngstown area, but I found insurance through Foremost for a pretty good price.

There is no getting around the 3 year occupancy requirement, but having 50% equity or more (assuming prices don't decline) after 3 years is pretty good.

@Luz Pagan also, if you're lucky enough to have several comps to choose from, you can often see a pretty distinct value to rehabbed vs not.

I’m pretty sure we’re going to sell and reinvest but I am going to look into the company you mentioned also.... just in case. 

@James Schiro it seems like that is pretty generous for the down payment partner to me, but obviously have not run the numbers.

Hi I'm pretty new to this whole real estate investing thing trying to learn as much as I can but also figure the best way to learn is going to be by jumping in.

@Dan StewartThe founder of Vanguard, John Bogle wrote a pretty good book called "The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Gurantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns"

But it's pretty insignificant.

Sounds like you've read through some of the posts about screening tenants - some may translate to your situation some may not, give it a re-read and it may hit you like a ton of bricks that - that is just the question I need to ask - write it down in your bullet points.Sounds like things are pretty crazy with moving out and whatnot, but do get your pictures together as soon as you can, even if you have to shuffle the mess from the kitchen - take your pics, and then move all the mess back into the kitchen to take pics of the living area...I'm sure that'll be a PIA, but will take your mind away from not having the pics up in the first place and ultimately feeling self-conscious about not.