Spreading funds across 2-3 properties could provide diversification and steady cash flow.

You can still achieve it, but finding deals that actually pencil out on all criteria (low enough purchase price, low enough renovation cost, cash flows on the backend, all cash out at refinance) is pretty hard.

These guys are having fun because there are a lot of scammers and gurus out there selling LLC creation services and Wyoming Trusts and Cook Islands Trusts and if you believe all that b.s. you will end up needing to cash out refinance soon in order to access that equity in order to pay for all their services plus an accountant to keep track of the mess.

For newbies, I recommend starting with a turnkey cash flow rental.

Give them a notice and offer cash for keys before eviction. 

There's no reason to provide details, though I do let people know if anyone asks that we do not accept bulk up-front rent payments or anything like that because I absolutely do not want a prospective tenant to think that someone else swooped in with a bunch of cash last minute.

Self managed HOAs are usually undercapitalized so you want to take a thorough review of the condition of the community to make sure there isn’t deferred maintenance because you might get hit with a special assessment if the board isn’t setting aside cash for those capital improvements.At face value, taking into consideration my typical financial objectives, I wouldn’t do this deal unless it was a much lower price.

The substantial cash need for large down payment or all cash that most others don't have .

“ cash flow returns” almost always compare horribly to a simple bank CD after you deduct for insurance, prop taxes< vacancy, capex, prop management (or your personal time.) etc etc etc. 

There's a monthly cash flow 101 game in Bloomington through MN REIA.