At least run this with good, bad, worst scenarios.

I hope management works, but taxes are flying, insurance is flying, and I just wonder if I made a mistake with this property. anyway, sorry for the rant...

Verifying last 2 years of rental history and income extremely important to find the “best of the worst”.Make sure you understand the Class of properties you are looking at and the corresponding results to expect.

So, they make honest mistakes that can still cost you thousands of dollars.- If you try to hire contractor directly, you have about a 90%+ chance of getting taken advantage of.

It’s better to spend a little now than risk costly mistakes later.

Blood gets thick and the worst part is 10 years later there are new voices in their ears, telling them all kind of crap and filling it with all kinds of ideas. 

It IS probably the worst time of the year - but that's when I go away (I'm a snowbird) so Jan, Feb and March are when I need to rent it.

Leave the owners alone, when and if they are ready to sell, they will, and there will be plenty of lots to choose from on the MLS.I have no statistics to back this up, but in my casual observation after our fire is about 1/3 of the owners rebuilt their homes (some built similar, some duplicated exactly--big mistake, and some built better/nicer/larger homes). 

I focus on finding deals that meet specific criteria, and I always keep my underwriting conservative to make sure the numbers work even on a worst case scenario.Right now, my big goal is to land my first property, ideally 20+ units in Florida, and build a strong portfolio from there.

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