This is not their fault, it's yours, but still.Secondly, you're down so much cause of the escrow plus new assessment.

The lender will not tell you about the stove breaking in the rental unit, vacancy, plumbing backup caused by tenant, etc. etc.

It's the combination of the tax benefits with the fundamentals of wealth-building.Asset appreciationPrincipal paydown/equity growth - can be leveraged for future investmentsScaling opportunity - the upfront tax savings is often reinvested in further acquisitionsRegarding your point about the "free loan to the government", I'd say your general point is fair, especially if you buy one STR and it underperforms, causing a sale.

They were super slow, had literally no idea how to read a basic purchase agreement contract, messed up on most of the paperwork, and ultimately were going to cause us to close 2-3 weeks late, with a lot of extra fees and less LTV than originally promised.

Cleaner enforcementIf someone violates the lease, moves out, or causes problems, you can address that tenant specifically without impacting your kids or the other renters.3.

I believe lack of housing is going to cause home prices to skyrocket until more mass, affordable housing is built.

Because this should have been done in the past, I would not charge them for the background check.Just be prepared, what you find may cause you additional problems. 

Set priorities based on what systems in the building are causing problems and have the most risk.

Not trying to cause drama but this is my first experience with real estate, is this normal?

That is not acceptable for a clear overpayment caused by internal controls failing.The clean, professional fix here is one of two options:Immediate cash reimbursement from the PM, followed by their separate recovery efforts with the vendor.A written agreement to offset the overpaid amount against monthly management fees until the balance is fully recovered, with offsets starting immediately and tracked transparently on the owner ledger.Anything else is effectively asking the owner to finance the PM’s mistake.This situation is exactly why owners need clear approval thresholds, dual verification on invoices, and explicit language in the management agreement covering errors and reimbursement timelines.