Decreasing IRR over time, assuming you're not taking anything out over time, seems counter intuitive.

Here are the three books I recommend: A Random Walk Down Wall Street - Burton Malkiel The Intelligent Asset Allocator - William Bernstein The Intelligent Investor -Benjamin GrahamReal estate investors love the scrappy intuitive nature of managing rentals.

@Victor So I think @Bob Okenwa's intuition is correct.  

At first it seams counter-intuitive from a time stand point but it really isn't.

But don't sit on your intuition, take action.

Your intuition is right.  

So, I recently ran a background/credit check on an interested tenant. BP Smartmoves recommends to decline this tenant, but on their payment history, they've literally never missed one payment. However, their partner's...

That seems counter-intuitive. 

Contractors with marketing experience or intuition are likely folding that into their bids.

While it may be a bit counter intuitive there is such low supply that despite the increasing prices the total dollars has decreased. 2) As everyone else has said, house hack if you can in any way scrape together the funds to buy.