Would love to hear any advice for first deals, maybe mistakes to avoid? 

I would recommend you wire the money to avoid losing the deal.

Where some old guy who is a financial advisor just tell you to avoid all types of debt (even in real estate) and to invest only in a diversified stock portfolio - which is exactly their business.

Further, they require notice to the end of the month: give notice on Feb 15 and they will say tenant doesn't have to move out until Apr 30 because they won't pay for only half of April.I avoided this delay by asking the tenant to agree to move out earlier, a.ka. cash for keys. 

@David WestHey man,If you’re building an investment portfolio out of state and this is your only rental here, I can see that becoming a headache as OOS investing has a learning curve that takes a lot of time (usually) our systems in place ect to avoid delays.

But I can tell you my experiences with a few bad ones to avoid in Jacksonville:Tony L Usry - He has a new rap sheet a mile long, but he is a short white dude that scams people out of money saying he can fix things, but he cannot.

@Laurie Cundiff For investing in a traditional solo 401(k) you are deferring income taxes to a future year (either at a higher or lower tax bracket) and you are avoiding income taxes and depreciation recapture upon the sale. 

Avoid them all together.

I'm sure there are many threads about this so if someone could point me to one of them that would be great.If i have property i can't avoid paying capital gains tax on, is it a loophole to just do a cash out refi and then a few months later sell the property?

And put down as little as 3.5% (I wouldn’t recommend this) -20% to avoid PMI.