Step 1: Be debt free (at least close) and have an emergency fund. 

I rented it short term for 5 years, making good cash flow monthly (about 2K/mo) and covering the debt service.

I rented it short term for 5 years, making good cash flow monthly (about 2K/mo) and covering the debt service.

I rented it short term for 5 years, making good cash flow monthly (about 1-2K/mo) and covering the debt service.

I was wondering what is the best company that covers all the background checks (credit, debt, criminal, income, rental, and evictions)?

Specifically, for the strategy I used, I did have to have quite a bit of money saved up ($90k) and that was from yrs of saving before, during and after the military.Before I even knew about house hacking and 4plexs and the VA home loan I was building my credit just because and just saving nearly my whole paycheck while I was living in the barracks, eating the food in the DFAC (Chow hall), no expensive toys and even after my contract ended I moved back home and lived with my dad for free and continued saving nearly my whole paycheck while I was working for AZ DOC as a Corrections Officer. basically, just keeping my expenses as low as possible and stacking cash away so I could take advantage of opportunities.So, it would behoove you to do the same and keep your expenses low, don't go into debt buying an expensive doodad like a $40k car, and a bunch of bad debt, and take advantage of one of the greatest loan products on the market!!

. - are there preferred returns listed in there ----- assuming these are equity investors and not debt (i.e. they have mortgages against the properties). 

That's called your debt to income ratio and banks will be looking at that number.

But it will come down to your debt to income ratio (considering the debt on the current home).

@Rochelle Duong Congrats on getting debt free and doing it right way!