Have your sticky notes printed at a print shop a few thousand at a time if you're serious about buying houses.Choose neighborhoods with homes likely to sell, such as older areas or places with recent foreclosures.

Correct me if I am wrong but Joe Schmoe with no experience and no education can call himself a financial advisor.There is no governing body that administers the term 'financial planner' so I put litte weight into that title / profession, whether it is fee based / non-fee based. 

Within a year my wife and I acquired four multi-families properties with a total of 20 units, and eventually another building to rent out (currently a bait and tackle shop) as well as an Ice House.

I’ve considered the idea of shopping it out to wholesalers, or even listing it, but I went into it with the intent to rent and I’d like to see that through if the numbers make sense.

Scenario:
- Fully stabilized retail center. "Shadow-anchored," meaning the Target or Costco building isn't included with the purchase, but it shares a parking lot or similar. In other words the subject property owner...

if hvac is really, really old, you could try shopping a "home warranty" that doesn't have hvac caps and exclusions and just get it for "systems." i know AHS used to offer those a while back, but even they started capping to to 3k or something silly.

Then once you have your golden ticket (pre approval letter) from the lender then you can begin looking for homes with a realtor and go shopping.

@Evan Polaski You are 100% right, the market and location is much more important than the age and condition of the property itself for the reasons you stated, even in the best markets there are some bad areas.I don't know if there is a clear definition of the property classes, what I consider class B is built after the mid 80's, and will be somewhere you feel comfortable walking at night, fairly close to shopping and amenities, and have a good amount of middle class renters. syndicators will always point out all the positives, you have to do your own research on the neighborhood, income level, comps and crime. 

Books like Fooled by Randomness make it apparent that you see a lot of sucessful people on social media, books, etc; not the graveyard full of dead bodies/failed investors. 

No wonder we go for realtor-contractor-PM self-help way rather than blindly trusting a one-stop-shop to make the most for us.