But I suspect misuse by the tenants since they store crap in the same space as the heater.

You're right about the neighbors being your best bet, though depending on the location of the parcel, I have heard of some people putting billboards up on their crap pieces of vacant land and renting the billboard space out...Hope that helps a little

I just see a lot of people get a general business degree and rack up crap debt they are stuck with.

I searched and searched, found some people on here are nothing but full of crap.

External appraisal...best you can do is average comp and if your exterior looks like crap, you'll have a lower comp.

I feel like I have a crap-load of transferable skills, but I'm still learning how they all apply to real estate.

I wouldn't install IKEA cabinets at my worst friends house......utter crap.

I am not crapping on the dream but what you did was trade one rat race for another. 

When you raise the rents be sure to tell the tenants that the reason for the increased rent is the tax bill so maybe they will vote more often to cut out the city excess crap like the hotels for the homeless. 

However, after reading and informing myself I understood that I’d have a better ROI by getting an apartment that needs renovation and do rehab.The problem is that older building here are really crap old.