I hope I don't get sidetracked in any way.

Jon- thank you so much you clarified alot in that response...I was looking at irs.gov. and got side tracked on a few different things...it makes sense...are these difficult to do yourself or would it be easier to hire an accountant?

I can see how many people get sidetracked or bogged down or overwhelmed.

Then I got side-tracked by a career change that involved significant travel for about 4-1/2 months, at the end of which my wife and I welcomed our first and second children into the world (ask me sometime about getting "the call" while out in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania).Perhaps it was the podcasts, perhaps it is the new work environment, perhaps it was the realization that in 18 years I'm going to be paying $$$$$ for two college tuitions simultaneously, but I have shifted my focus away from strictly buy-and-hold to a phased approach.

After many years as an independent mortgage broker in California (when I wasn't sidetracked by something like sailing off to Mexico & writing a book about this true-life adventure) I have developed the ability to be effective anywhere.

I first started reading books about real estate investing in high school but got sidetracked with all the fun of being a twentysomething in NYC (probably could have bought 5 houses in cash with all the $ I blew on partying, sigh).

Sidetracked...

I didn't want to bring that up because I don't want this to side track into a discussion about why that might be a bad idea.

Not to sidetrack too much, but another question for all: since there aren't many improvements to make on this property, I will have to come up with a down payment (most likely).

You can see where you are and you can see where California is but without a map with the actual roads you are going to take to get there you are going to get lost, sidetracked, and take much longer to get there than if you have a detailed route laid out.