It can be tough to identify a great contracting team or crew in Chattanooga, a lot of investors I know hire their own crew and purchase properties frequently enough to keep them busy and solely working for them so they don't have to pick up other jobs.

That means your vacancy costs are incurred more frequently AND are a larger % of your rent.All that said, there are plenty of investors who are very successful in the tougher property niche, however - they have their own expense and NOI models from their experience.

I see people posting here quite frequently "the roof is only 2 years old, so I don't need to reserve for it" which I disagree with since the roof WILL need replaced and you can save now or save later, but either way that roof will fail, need replaced and cost money at a point in the future, whether or not you have adequate reserves. 

This is frequently stated on this board by very knowledgeable and astute real estate investors who don’t fully understand lending.13) Don’t get lending docs from a title company or (yikes!!!)

I wanted to originally invest in Jacksonville but found an opportunity in Orlando. 3+2 SFRPurchased for $75KReno $18KARV $150KRent $1300I'm currently in process to refi the property and looking to cash out $112K (75% LTV) to use on the next deal.Things I learned:1) Hire someone to inspect the property frequently DURING reno. 

I do enjoy traveling and do travel frequently for work already, so a card like the Amex Plat. or Reserve caught my eye.

They are less frequent and require more work.

Frequent walk throughs will minimize damage.

@Terry Lao I'm just saying that Real Estate doesn't operate in a vacuum . . . 

You have to pump the septic, in my personal house I pump every 2 years, in a MHP I would expect that to be more frequent.