You can hear real-world examples of how others have built their investment portfolio and (hopefully) learn to avoid their mistakes.4.

I don't expect to know everything by then, but I hope to develop a basic strategy that prevents me from making the most common and costly mistakes that a newbie can make.

That's how you gain the information you need to AVOID MISTAKES. 

There were several mistakes made on my tax returns that I pointed out, which required going back and forth with their tax preparers, and asking repeatedly to cut to the chase and have a phone call.

I fully understand there are consequences for my mistakes and I own up to that.

Once you’ve made all of the rookie mistakes and have your SOPs in order, you can go invest out of state with a game plan.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend exploring as many sources as possible to get referrals AND cross-reference them to get as much accurate information as possible.Check out NARPM.com, BP’s Property Manager Finder (BiggerPockets: The Real Estate Investing Social Network), etc.Also, encourage you to learn from the mistakes of others - by reading posts here on BiggerPockets about owners not having their expectations met by their current Property Management Company.

A real estate tax pro  can help optimize deductions, ensure compliance, and avoid costly mistakes most importantly so that would be the next step 

Also:_________________________________________________________________________Recommend exploring as many sources as possible to get referrals AND cross-reference them to get as much accurate information as possible.Check out NARPM.com, BP’s Property Manager Finder (BiggerPockets: The Real Estate Investing Social Network), etc.Also, encourage you to learn from the mistakes of others - by reading posts here on BiggerPockets about owners not having their expectations met by their current Property Management Company.

Prefer keeping this kind of stuff behind closed doors if possible and sorting it out without revealing dirty laundry.I would have been in the same boat as many other turnkey providers that are no longer around if I didn't focus on limiting how much business I take on.And even with my stupidly strict criteria, we still copped the brunt of the sword.Business is business and people are people, sometimes things just don't work out.It's a true shame but such is life.I always want whats best for everyone and for every deal to work out and for everyone to succeed.With the best intentions, mistakes are still made.Those that work hard and do their best, will also make mistakes unfortunately.Again, I sleep in peace and whenever I F@#$ up, it's an honest mistake so crucify me all you want.Thank God, never been sued and back round is squeaky clean and I intend to keep it that way.Less is more and when crisis does arise (It always eventually does no matter how much you prepare and do your best), we can hopefully rectify and do our best to fix.For example, just had an investor loose $50,000 on a deal and the next few deals we are working for free for this investor.We don't have to do this, we want to...Not sure how we would be able to accommodate such an instance if I had 50+ investors loosing that much so I guess my stringent on-boarding criteria has saved our A$$ for 10+ years now.Granted, I'm burnt out on folks and have pulled back even more from doing our "measly" 4-5 turnkey deals per month and have decided to focus on just building my own portfolio.Like I initially intended when I moved to this country in 2012.Thanks mate and keep being great