As far as refinancing, you can either do a conventional loan where they use your debt to income / DTI to qualify or you can use a DSCR loan which structures the loan off of the rent versus income ratio.More info on DSCR loans: DSCR loans won't use your income to underwrite the loan. 

I started by saving up for a down payment which was 5% for the first "second home" property in 2004, then 10% on the next few. 

A nice home that may some day make a bad rental but a good primary home An exchange in to a state without state income tax to save that 10% in state income taxes.  

While I don't have experience yet, I'm currently networking to meet new people in the area and saving up for my first deal hopefully sometime next year with the help of a family member who plans to partner up.

Many investors get their license for access to MLS and/or to save money on real estate commissions when they buy & sell.It's a good strategy, but only if you are doing VOLUME!

This saves me a lot of communication time as I only need to respond to inquiries with cut and paste responses with the open house day/time and I only need to show the rental twice a week. 7.

That’s possible savings.

Definitely make those assessments during inspection or prior to making an offer if you can to save yourself the time. 

Forget trying to walk them through a simple repair over the phone, to avoid sending a ServiceTech and saving an owner money.

There is a huge gain probably in a more efficient gas system then oil so they are already getting some cost savings.