The father could co-sign on the lease to give me an alternate method to collect payment. 

All of these requests were fulfilled within a day or two after initial contact.Lessons Learned: -I learned that it makes sense to adapt based off of responses you get during showings instead of being very strict in you requirements.

I agree with Jon to a point, the reason you have reserves is to cover unexpected expenses and having 6 months PITI means you'll generally have the payment covered, the regular rent may cover more such as a minor repair and clean ups for that vacancy.Having additional properties and holding funds for all isn't really necessary as a slush or escrow fund as the chances of having extended vacancies or expenses in all your properties at the same time is pretty slim.You should have the deductible for your hazard policy as well, if you have an insured loss you'll need.You also need to consider your ability to access other funds, not just from you fund but total assets and the ability to borrow quickly.Jon's method is pretty safe, but as you add more properties you can fine tune funds held in reserve taking into consideration your abilities to cover a disaster. :)

I love conversations like this, give me some insight guys, so I can be even better with my investors :)An active savvy investor should utilize a variety of methods to find deals.- Do their own direct marketing and finding their own deals.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Would this be the advisable method of reaching out to them and is it too short?

I take it you're not a proponent of the write-the-offer-on-a-napkin method?

@Nick Coonis would it be possible to use your method to produce a soils report for an engineer.

County records is where non-brokerage sites like Zillow and Trulia obtain their data (at least one of their methods).  

I took the 90 hour class online via Tucker: Which method did you use?

Try getting another method of payment...or no checks.