Anything else is luck and relying on luck is gambling. 

Its really a gamble that you have to be prepared for. 

Purchase price: $690,000 Cash invested: $172,500 Took a gamble on a larger single family home in an up and coming master planned community.

There is a gamble there that the second appraisal comes in at or below the first.

Looking for high equity growth areas is a bit of a gamble.

this is only a good idea if you have reason to believe that the area will be appreciating quickly, which is called speculation and akin to gambling not investing. me personally, I would rather put my money on black than bank on market appreciation. negative cash flow rentals are a time suck and money suck.

With running this "business" there will be operational input costs.

Any additional screenings or criteria should be consistently applied to all applicants to avoid potential discrimination claims.Rental application fraud can be a significant threat to the financial and operational stability of running and operating a property.

if you have an LLC and both properties are under it, you just need 1 operating account.If both are under your personal, 1 bank account specifically for the rental is enough for operating.Security Deposits should always be a separate account altogether.

Quote from @Nicole Heasley Beitenman: I'm coming up on my first year of operating an MTR.