I exclusively invest out of state (buy and hold / fix n flip) because cashflow is extremely difficult to find in this area.

Well, I wouldn’t go that far, people throw that word around too much these days but I would say they made a lot of promises that they haven’t kept and paint a very unrealistic picture with an extremely high pressure sales scheme that does a disservice to the vast majority of their students.

I agree with what everyone else has said, those figures seem extremely high.

Go to Etsy and search for "rental property tracker," and you will find hundreds of nice spreadsheets to track 10-20 rentals, usually for under $10.Software has extremely helpful features like online payments, marketing syndication (click a button, and your property is advertised on multiple sites), electronic document review/signing, maintenance tracking, and owner reports.

It really comes down to your goals and time commitments.Airbnb margins have been getting tighter and it is extremely time consuming.

Self-showing services are extremely common but that should be in the contract. 

Besides reading and listening to podcasts, my wife and I attend a local real estate investor meetup that has been extremely beneficial. 

We've been extremely lucky with our first tenant- she is wonderful.

This thread is extremely interesting!

With regard to renovations, I always suggest taking incremental steps to bigger renovations or partnering with someone who has already done a renovation at that level.I've been known to just go for the big rehabs for my personal investments here in Chicago , and during that process, it's always more stressful than it needs to be...As far as navigating the competition, I've found the best thing I can do is get EXTREMELY CLEAR  on what I am looking for; then I am confident pulling the trigger quicky.