To echo what others have said, if your friend managed to do a late pay on a bill after the three of you had already agreed to this plan (which required you all to maintain stellar credit), how can you count on this friend in the future to hold up his end of the bargain?

All rents paid , largely because these a mostly A class rentals , 740 + credit score and stellar rental history .

The team underneath them seemed less than stellar and I would definitely use a different lender. 

Va financing for 1-4 family is standard and credit does not need to be stellar

I see former players from the 2000's coming back to the industry under different business names, and some of their prior work was less than stellar.

I did not have any W-2 income so I knew conventional loans were out and my own market back in Colorado was much to expensive to buy with cash and the ROI was less than stellar even if I did.

I take 6-7% all day long in my situation (portfolio-type loans)...and like you, I have stellar credit.

Our job growth is stellar, the scarcity issue will compound-  read the growth management act and the buildable lands report and you’ll be blown away by how few single family homes are coming online.  

The number of sales are extremely positive but, there's not a significant uptrend in price per square foot even for a stellar rehab. 

and of course since these are new in service your really won't know what the numbers are until you own it 3 to 5 years and can do an income average on them.. one year can be stellar .. one bad turn over and it could be a bummer .. one reason I always say if you going into this you need to find a way to get to 5 to 10 doors so you can average them all out then know in your mind your in for the long haul.. this keeps neighborhoods stable and gives you a fair shot at long term cash flow and you can see what your averaging.