Quote from @Frank Flores: For a rookie with low investment capital, what investment strategy would be best for me at this time?

Hello Doug, I am not a real estate attorney nor is this legal advice.Unless someone's state has specific laws banning contract assignments you should be fine doing the following.  

Would that be, for example, if the PM says, "I manage a duplex for John Smith in Turlock," then I call John as a reference, ask John a few questions, and then ask John the address of his duplex so I can later look it up on the county website and verify if he is the owner?

It has a lot of features that I simply can't write down all together.Zoho SalesIQ it integrates with your websites for real time chat supportZoho Workdrive, this is a Google Drive alternative except Zoho gives you 5 TBs right of the bat!

This property is in lansing, MI.

We lend on projects of this size!

I am looking for suggestions on either underwriting software and/or excel templates for this type of underwriting.

Good you are researching this topic - I also love subject tos and have written a book on the topic.  2. 

At small dollar amounts like this situation has ($3,400??)

This is critical.