The one I'd want every first-timer to hear is that your experience gets underwritten right alongside your credit and the deal. Plenty of the lenders I shop tier leverage, reserves or pricing by how many rentals you've owned or projects you've finished, and fix-and-flip lenders especially tend to save their top leverage for people with a track record. Some DSCR programs also won't count short-term rent toward qualifying until you've run one for a while. None of that should scare a new investor off. It just means the first deal should still work at the more conservative terms a newcomer is likely to see, because a closed, performing property is what moves you up a tier later. The first deal gets you the property, and it also gets you the history the next lender asks about.
