Anita,The organization that you would contact in most states is the Insurance Dept. 

I also worked for the Columbus Region economic development organization for several years and have been a Franklin County foster parent for three years.

Examples - owner occupied loans for house hackers, specific market knowledge (ie - friend of mine that ice fishes and bought a short term rental cabin in an ice fishing spot that you and I would never know of), ability to do renovation on your own or cheap, contacts with local companies or organizations that would be a tenant source for mid term rentals, ways to source off market deals, etc.Whatever it is, figure that out and get started.

Let's address your questions:Question #1: Setting up an LLC for your real estate rental business is a prudent step for liability protection and organization.

I use Buildium (though I've sort of out grown it).   

Deborah Saddler, the information that I'm organizing at this time is more based around RE definitions and concepts, as opposed to formulas in Excel.

Appreciation (forced and organic) 

Focus on building a relationship with the owner and the deal will happen organically

According to Linkedin and the profile of one of the individuals Rey Grabato, the company was founded in 2006, NRIA has grown to be one of the nation’s leading specialists in institutional-caliber private real estate investment management with over $1.25B AUM*, focusing on luxury townhome, condominium and multifamily acquisition and development in many supply constrained, high barrier-to-entry markets along the east coast.So what could have investors done in this instance?

And also, the majority of people are not that organized.