here is no reason to shop anyone else those are awesome rates as long as its on drawn funds.. not sure what type of assets your buying .. buy and hold have cheaper rates than spec or rehab loans. so have to compare apples

I too work as a consultant (Business Pro, with Apple) and I am beginning my REI ventures this year. 

They are not really investors but speculators.Micheal  its totally apples to Oranges  when i got into this game a century ago or it feels like that.. investors did not buy SFR's per se like they do in droves today.. and from my cheap seats.. all the new construction we build not a single property goes to an investor.. price is the price and you get to the price by cost plus profit and profits are generally 10 to 20% of gross sales prices as your cmpeititon backs into it the same way.its only the last 20 or so years were soup de jour is getting rich only rentals and the easiest way to do that is buy low value SFR.. beginners can t start generally with 2 mil apartment complex.. but they can a 75k SFR.. 

You must compare apples to apples - I would never remotely compare my real estate experience to that of a full time real estate agent/broker/investor/developer/contractor. 

Provided I didn't have kids, I didn't need to work for money, and my wife would be okay living in a house built on top of a barn.

Often times the company you hire will credit you the $500 for the engineer if it’s over 10k (don’t quote me on that, but I’d ask) with the structural engineers report I was able to compare apples to apples on the exact fixes needed.

Plant an apple tree in the front yard, but put in the lease if the tenant ever eats from the forbidden apple tree they will be evicted 

In every area of real estate you're going to have bad apples.

Facebook , apple , Amazon , Netflix and Google.

Not every body wants to deal with all the things that come with larger deals.Everybody can own Apple stock not everybody want to own a company like Apple or run a hedge fund, more power to people like you who can make it happen!!!