It is EXTREMELY competitive and the margins are very thin, so the more expense you can mitigate the better.

Cash flow is not its main power.

Quote from @Warren Powers: @Marc Rice The best Real Estate Agents have trusted contacts who can get inspection items taken care of.

You should also ask if they do cost segregation analyses, as that might be extremely helpful in reducing your income tax liability.You could pay a CPA to prepare your tax return for this first year and learn as much as possible from them.

Inflation steadily erodes the purchasing power of a fixed sum.

Real estate has so many tax benefits and credits available, that I always tell people it's crucial to have a CPA that's extremely knowledgeable in this area.

I have two primary investor-partnerships thus the buy power is doubled as major projects come from 2 sources.

I have a rental in a C area that does extremely well and others in A locations that are slow.

The challenge when renting directly to the government is that they expect below market rents.From what I've read in the past, most institutional investors look at these leases like US Treasury Bonds (extremely low risk) and expect a similar rate of return as bonds.Keep this in mind while you try to negotiate a rent increase.

Public sentiment is powerful and negativity certainly garners more likes, clicks and ad revenue that positive stores.