A local Investor-Agent can help shorten your learning curve and save you a lot of headaches as they tend to understand the market better.Use Niche.com, Greatschools.org, and Msc.Fema.gov for your research.Good luck and make it happen!

VA property standards will apply here, and commercial real estate tends to be more beat up than residential in general, and on top of that high vacancy real estate is also almost always beat up real estate that has been poorly managed and maintained for several years.

@Amit Desai Unfortunately, rental properties tend to have higher rates because the lender takes on more risk than someone's primary residence.

Unfortunately, those typically don't have the highest # returns, but they do tend to have good appreciation over time and may have less "hassle factor."

Yardi's Advanced Budgeting and Forecasting module is wonderful and tends to be more accurate because it builds its forecast on all of your historical data. 

I see too many times where investors treat bad properties like many women treat bad men. 

If you go to Boglehead's they tend to bash real estate investing, whereas on this website the subject tends to favor more real estate. 

I tend to get more action and have more success if something is marketed at $775 instead of $800 or $1475 instead of $1500.

@Daniel Dahan sometimes if you complete your profile, people on this platform will tend to take you more seriously.

Of course, with all things, the answers to all these matters will depend on the circumstances.California tends to have more laws on the books and requirements and restrictions that it can be a good idea to form a CA LLC for out of state property so that you as a CA resident are covered, and to try to have your contracts fall under the purview of CA courts.