Although there are surely methods of acquiring leads with $2000 a month that may be profitable, such as buying list, paying callers, or running online ads, I would recommend not to go down that path. 

I would put the 3-5% down, fix it up while living in it and then continue, often times when you are refinancing they will only refinance you at a 75-80% LTV ( I am not a lender so could be wrong) but that would make the numbers better either way if you just did the house hacking/nomad method. 

Which appraisal method did they rely on for their valuation? 

You can use well vetted forms to rent out your properties without having to pay a lawyer or anyone else for something of lesser quality AND they are updated regularly to conform to changing laws and norms. 7.

Take the money you were going to use to do your BRRRR method acquisitions and focus on active income.

Better than any month we had even in 2021 or 2022.The problem here, like most markets, is supply (in both quantity and quality), not demand.

So being able to provide top quality service will help generate referrals during the lulls. 

I’m based in Alabama and, I started with spreadsheets for financial analysis and many browser tabs open... trying to figure out the school quality, factors that would attract renters, stuff like that.... rental comps etc... , then trying to mash all of that into a halfway decent analysis.

My typical strategy is the brrrr method.

Generally speaking, we don't use this technique for the BRRRR Method.