It is just too much of a gamble.

But folks fail to recognize rents are also much higher.

After getting burned a couple times by professional, experienced renters who quickly recognized our management inexperience, we began to pivot to increasing our knowledge of subsidy programs, mainly Section 8, which had inherent resident accountability measures modeled into their programs.

Recognize, contrary to what the Midwest people indicate, virtually all markets are negative cash flow with high LTV.

Hi Wendy, I thought I recognized you.

Analyze enough deals to determine when a deal is abnormally good for the area, and you'll be able to recognize opportunities as they come. 

There are a lot of full-blown property management software systems out there with accounting modals (Builduim, Doorloop, Rentred, to name a few) but they do a lot of other things besides accounting, bookkeeping, and taxes so not the same thing as QBO.QBO has a few cheaper competitors Stessa & Digb.com that are specifically set up out of the box for real estate investors (e.g. income/expenses categories are things you'd recognize like repairs, appraisal, etc.) and there is no need to set up a separate class for each of your properties since the portfolio already includes these.

Recognize Local rules: Become knowledgeable about landlord-tenant legislation, local rules, and any particular requirements pertaining to real estate transactions in the desired market.

It doesn't need to be the best deal in the world, as long as it's not negative, you'll have a good asset, and you'll be able to recognize the good / better / bad deals a lot quicker. 

My properties are all A and B grade, so the tenants are usually very satisfied with the quality of product, and most of them recognize that they're getting a deal.