Lesson learned, no matter how much extra space there is, if it's still a 1/1, I can't get significantly higher rent from it.

My tip is to focus on what adds the most value to the property and the market you’re targeting.No matter how thorough your initial budget, unexpected expenses are almost inevitable.

Hang onto your money if the payment makes sense without a large chunk down, or any for that matter.

To be perfectly honest, real estate investing, no matter the strategy, has always seemed like a far off dream despite all of the reading I’ve done.

You can manage them remotely (it's not that hard, no matter what the property management companies will tell you), and you can also vacation in them yourself.  

Bad policies that may allow SOME investors to make more money because of short supply neglects the following:- the marginal increases in the net worth of some investors is far outweighed by the overall losses to other investors and the community because of lost opportunity, etc in that market.Your last comment is all that really matters - the policies that we all seem to agree are bad -have the complete opposite effect of the intent (but it is not a good basis for an investment strategy)Frankly I am not really sure what your point is. 

Job for less than a year should not matter as long as he has prior work history, or school history, and we are using just base pay.Let me know if you would like to schedule a call to go over options!

For that matter, most find it hard to find a great property management for many areas.

If I have a complete listing that gives me the basic expenses and the income for the property I know in a matter of about 20 seconds if the deal is worth spending more time on.

I don't think it really matters what you record in QB if you need this for taxable income purposes, your accountant is going to make whatever adjustments they need to make anyway.The only depreciation tracker I use is the fixed asset schedule my accountant provides with my tax return.