You will have income (rent), but then you'll have expenses: taxes, insurance, repairs, turnaround cleanup, eviction/attorney costs, vacancy factor etc.

In today's world you have to use risk to get a head and risk is another word for equity and credit.It takes Money to make Money - and credit and equity are money just in different forms if used correctly.

Even without a budget for repairs/etc - let's just define "cashflow" as income left over after PITI & utilities for a moment - Mac Groveland and Highland Park are going to be tough.

I would encourage you to break it down into. 1) single or multi family 2) Buy and hold vs flip --I would definitely buy and hold if you have limited knowledge when it comes to property repairs (you can always flip later).  

You have to understand repair costs, ARV and many other things.

@Zachary EngenMost lenders will allow a cash-out refinance of up to 75% of the property’s appraised after-repair value (ARV), not the purchase price or costs.

., shifts in pricing, demand-supply changes).Analyze local or regional real estate data.Identify key economic indicators impacting the housing market.Stay ahead of demographic changes or migration trends.Do you have any go-to platforms, datasets, books, or even strategies that have been especially valuable?

Yes - include ALL expenses in your math, including reserves for repairs/maint, capex, turnover, etc.

@Dennis GallagherIt's my understanding that the "Income-Expense Ratio" primarily use operating expenses as the expense variable, which includes costs like utilities, property taxes, insurance, maintenance, repairs, property management fees, and trash removal, all of which are considered when calculating a property's operating expense ratio (OER).You calculate OER by dividing the total operating expenses by the gross operating income of a property.

This means they will have practically complete control over whom to rent, how much to rent for, and how much to charge for repairs, etc.