When each additional property adds less mental and operational weight, scale becomes boring, and boring scales well.

You already have boots-on-the-ground market knowledge, and it’s much easier to handle maintenance, upkeep, and tenant management locally.Your first investment will certainly come with a learning curve—and probably a few mistakes—but investing in your own backyard helps reduce risk while you build experience.

By the way, I also agree the FICO score itself does not carry much weight for evaluating rental applicants.

If you have more skills that value goes up.

This should also show up in the CPI at some point since the owner’s equivalent rent is such a large weight in the CPI.

In slower markets, you can sometimes hit above your weight class.

Weight limits or breed restrictions are common and can add a bit of control on your end. 

Just walking over it, though disbursed my weight and I didn't sink.

Equally important is for your friend NOT to accept, listen to, heed, or in any way give any weight to advice offered from friends, posters on BP or anywhere else, or anyone not licensed to practice law AND specializing in ASSET PROTECTION. 

.🚨 Red Flags to Investigate:Exploitative Positioning: Framing distressed elderly home sales as "leads" without proper consent from families or guardians.Certification Gimmicks: “Certified Investor” badge may hold no legal weight—used to justify upsell coaching and access fees.Upfront Buy-in Fees: Known to charge large access or onboarding fees to investors (often $10K+).Misuse of Influence: Repeated podcast tours and affiliate deals suggest a guru marketing cycle, not eldercare expertise.