Once you start looking offline for deals it gets a little trickier to get the information if the seller isn’t prepared.

You can do all this without a realtor but prepare to put some decent time and effort into it.

That's probably the most important question you need to ask yourself - are you willing and prepared for that outcome? 

There are also a couple dozen regulars and another couple dozen novices, some of whom wandered over from the bank foreclosure auctions happening on the other end of the courthouse steps.How can you prepare for the auction?

Document everything for yourself, IRS and tax preparer. 

If your deposit does cover all the money they are claiming you are probably SOL.Tenants with pets must be prepared to pay for the luxury of having animals.

@Nick KnoblachOf course, you should always confirm with your own CPA who is familiar with your situation, but here's a few generalities:- CA taxes residents on worldwide income, so the CA resident will likely be taxed on the entirety of income that he/she receives on his/her CA resident tax return, including his/her share of rental income- CA will likely want to collect tax on all income earned in CA due to CA-sitused real property, so any non-residents in CA should likely be prepared to file a non-resident income tax return in CA to report his/her share of income earned from the CA real property-I'm not familiar with MN rules, but most states generally allow for a credit for taxes paid to another state. 

If you lived there 24 months before making it an entail I’d sell and take the $100k tax free.

Hope to start investing in the next year and will spend some time learning what I can from this site to prepare myself. 

I would under-react about the house cleaning as they will be quick to retort that they are in the process of moving - just state that it would be helpful to have the apartment "show well" so you can get this part of the process over with and both you and they can return to preparing for the transition.