Done right, college gives you tools to earn a much better living, doing something you enjoy doing, and expands your mind and thought process to improve your critical thinking and reasoning and realizing there's a whole lot to life, more than you'll ever be able to experience in your limited lifespan.2.

Closing cost $9,989 While the $10,000 in closing costs appears to be high for a $68k loan, realize close to $3500 of it is taxes and prepaids.Of the $6,000 that are true closing costs, $2000 you can shop for  (which I do not think you will do better).

I mistakenly included some of the emergency fund for our first investment property purchase and I didn’t realize how comfortable it made me feel to have that.

Get rent rolls, estoppels and any financials that you can from the seller but also realize that your expenses will be different than theirs and you always have to run your own numbers.  

The average consumer here would probably never realize this is done, but I have experienced it first hand on multiple projects.

Hoping to breathe life into this thread... for those with Baselane, I just realized their hours are super limited, which is a problem because I'm trying to log into my account and the website is looping.

We wasted several thousands of dollars with them until we realized that they weren't able to handle the project...After we fired them they turned around and offered me a job ;>) - I politely declined as I don't think the industry is setup to help us. 

I didn’t realize section 8 could be partial or full rent coverage.

About a year or two ago I pivoted and started flipping and finding alternative strategies, but I have realized those cannot replace this strategy, they can be in addition to it, but I need to continue buying, moving, and keeping as a rental every couple of years because this really is the best strategy for building long term wealth.Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Still in the early stages - it will probably take 2 more years to realize the value.