Digitize physical receipts for easy storage and use a consistent naming convention for easy sorting - 2024.03.25 Home Depot.Maintain proper records, such as contracts, settlement statements, and promissory notes.Additionally, you can track income and expenses consistently using software or spreadsheets.As you scale, if bookkeeping isn't fun, consider hiring a bookkeeper for a couple hundred bucks per month.

Also, focus on 2 years of job/income stability.Class D Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, all cashflow with little, maybe even negative, relative rent & value appreciationVacancy Est: 20%+ should be used to cover nonpayment, evictions & damages.Tenant Pool: majority will have FICO scores under 560 (almost 30% probability of default), little to no good tradelines, lots of collections & chargeoffs, recent evictions.

With a DSCR (Debt Service Coverage Ratio) loan, you can tap into your equity and still retain the cash flow since it's based on the property's rental income rather than personal income.

I think a lot of people are hoping a mentor/coach/RE guru, will hand hold them and they buy X amount of properties and generate X amount of dollars in rental income and they become "financially free from their W2 job" and wealthy. 

If you're after rental income and long-term growth, Branson is a great option.

I have my eyes set on a plot of land near my home where there is high income and significant traffic in a rapidly growing area in Cedar Park, Texas (north of Austin). 

While the income stream is much slower, the total received is (hopefully) much greater.

I would also recommend looking at cities close to Greenville, like Anderson, Easley, & Simpsonville as well since Greenville can be competitive unless you are looking at off-market deals.Also the non-occupancy tax would be based on the tax assessed value of the property and not the income it produces.

My credit is poor right now but can easily be improved as my income is much better lately. 

Income generated from within CA has to be reported in CA.