Bet you know who that is don't ya Carlos? 

Lots of crime over there, I'd say best bet would be 1 occupied and 1 vacant.

With C or below you probably can't avoid some of it so I'd go with a recency bias, ie anyone who has a long period of time between their last eviction and successful rentals other places will be a safer bet than the guy that just got evicted. 

I run the land brokerage arm at Newmark in Houston and sell development sites primarily.

He is not financially independent, but I bet he's living the life you dream of.Figure out what you really want, then start building a plan to get there.

Get architect into the house when you are in escrow, get all drawings and site visit done while in escrow along with prep to submit once you close 2.

There are very few sellers of notes right now, so who are you buying and selling too.You are going to be sadly dissappointed and realize after 3-6 months you probably wasted your money.Your best bet is to join some groups on FB or elsewhere and start to learn that way.Let me ask you this question: Have you spoken to any note investor out there to ask them about the environment today to actually get into notes? 

The only thing that no one else has mentioned is that required by law on site agent?

Go to Etsy and search for "rental property tracker," and you will find hundreds of nice spreadsheets to track 10-20 rentals, usually for under $10.Software has extremely helpful features like online payments, marketing syndication (click a button, and your property is advertised on multiple sites), electronic document review/signing, maintenance tracking, and owner reports.

Look for private sales in public records or on FSBO sale sites, and/or6.