The kindness and humor of the responses is comforting in a field where there is very little down time (currently as I get it established) and you all "get it".

@Dennis GallagherIt's my understanding that the "Income-Expense Ratio" primarily use operating expenses as the expense variable, which includes costs like utilities, property taxes, insurance, maintenance, repairs, property management fees, and trash removal, all of which are considered when calculating a property's operating expense ratio (OER).You calculate OER by dividing the total operating expenses by the gross operating income of a property.

(Only if you are SERIOUS about real estate as your wealth/career vehicle.)Make sure you join a brokerage that is large, established, and has a reputation for top performance and excellent training.Once you learn the basics and get out into the field to see the state of the market, you'll learn the price points and be able to know a good/great deal when you stumble across it.I have made some of my best (most lucrative) buys from meeting with a seller who wants to list, and when we discussed the price, I knew it fit my parameters, so I bought it! 

What are the expenses (taxes, who pays utilities, etc)?

Are you paying any utilities as the owner, aside from water and user fee?

I am a fan of utilizing equity in existing real estate owned to build the rental portfolio though at the beginning, rather than just relying on money saved alone.  

I'd love to utilize their expertise when assessing a property since they are local but I'm not sure what the general expectation is when I don't have a tangible property and I have not entered into contract to work with them yet.Some questions I have are: local regulations/permitting timeline, property's potential from their perspective, landscaping/amenities cost estimate (they also help facilitate this).

If you sit empty for one month, you lose $1250 for PITI, plus utilities and any other expenses.

(prorating utilities by tenant head count for instance). 

I have had nothing but problems utilizing their system.