This house is literally right beside most of the other houses that caller #1 is offering and is close to a college.

I am not very tax literate and have never filed for anything other than a W2.

@James Wise  see my post above I could not tag you... but it did just dawn on me... as  a broker for 42 years myself and having sold literally 1000 plus deals in my day... etc etc.. when your actually selling real estate you will preview listings for your clients..

Holy smokes, this article/video should convince you pretty well that you shouldn't let your "passive income source" be too passive.Not everything should be delegated. 

<-- income capped, meaning middle class and modest income only, but HUGE for those below the threshold.Mortgage interest deduction.Property tax deduction.Being able to write-off maintenance/repairs on your rental properties.For Californians, Prop 13 is a huge boon to buy-and-hold REI.There's a reason that entire books, intended for the middle class and others that aren't paying $10k/yr for CPA services, have literally been written about how to maximize tax goodies associated with owning real estate. 

@Scott Taylor   E & O = Errors and Omissions  insurance.. virtually every realtor has it.and if you make a monetary claim against a realtor they usually turn it over to the E & O carrier if the claim is sufficient enough.. many of these policies have 5k deductables.Also in most forms and we are going through this right now on a deal I am the seller on in PA were the buyer literally backed out day of closing and wanted their 10k back.. and of course I told them no greaking way.. so we are going to mediation.. and mediation is cheap there only 250 an hour.. the buyer has not appointed an attorney and my Agents will represent me..

I'm on my 2nd round of going through the podcast and combined with all the forums posts, they have taught me literally everything I know.

Taxes are HIGH and the cheap properties are literally run down to the point where a rehab would bring you way over without capital.

I literally grew up watching the house prices rise, rise, rise and then dramatically fall in 2008.

I am literally on my first week of searching and i'm looking in Chicago with another property manager as well.