What are you thinking your "flip" period will be?

This drives stronger rental demand, particularly during tourism and seasonal work periods, which can further increase margins and create opportunities for steady cash flow. 

SOMEONE has to absorb the capex, period, end of story. 

You just got pre-approved and are ready to make your first investment in a rental property.You are worried about rates and margins on your investment.If you can buy a value-add duplex near you, ideally with tenants in place, I would look at doing that or live in one side of the duplex and put less down.That way, you start with cashflow and can prepare to improve the property and increase rents when a tenant moves and you should always have a rent check coming in.If you buy it well enough, you can refinance the property and pull out a home equity line of credit and go buy the next duplex in a short period of time.If you cannot find that near you, there are several markets in Michigan where you can and we have experienced property manager partners who can handle the rehab and manage the property well.Top Your Success!

There's nothing that prevents you from getting your replacement property under contract before the sale of your old property, and that would certainly help with the identification period instead of starting your search after the fact.

Add to this that there are 400+ houses coming on the rental market in Bennah Oaks in a short period, and we will all be competing against each other to get a tenant in.

FICO scores and other risk scores can be misleading if there's not enough tradelines over at least a 48 month period.

I like to ask about move-in date, number of occupants, lease period, and pets (at a minimum). 

The big benefit over a HELOC is that it locks in a fixed rate and stretches your payments over 30 years instead of a 15-year draw/repay period.

In Ohio, the process is fairly landlord-friendly compared to a lot of other states, and once the notice period expires, you can file for eviction in Franklin County Municipal Court if the property’s in Grandview Heights.