But from my experience, if you take your time to know the market very well and build good contacts (seem like Javier from a reply is a seasoned investor), there are lots of diamonds in the earth's crust.

Some of my tenants are the salt of the earth, but I had to evict a few that tasted like a mouthful of rock salt.It takes guts to chime in after Frank has spoken. 

.- one to bring you back down to earth: https://www.biggerpockets.com/...- one in the middle: https://www.biggerpockets.com/...- https://www.biggerpockets.com/...?

This is true of any changes except an apocalyptic asteroid hitting the earth.   

If they can’t accept messages from me, then how on God’s green earth could my tenant reach them if there was an emergency situation.

Doing a quick Google Earth search can give you a basic view of the area.

Not exactly an earth shaking difference between now and the historical average and I suspect statistically no meaningful difference.Starting in 1996, the homeownership percentage noticeably starts to rise.

Even if you don't plan doing Section 8, this will open your eyes to how some renters live, what items you should/shouldn't offer when renting "Class C" housing, and also plenty of down to earth, common sense.I'm not a multi family investor (yet) but those books will give you a good foundation with many concepts of buying, flipping, tenant management, and making a profit off long-term holding.

A good first step is just looking at the property and the neighborhood on Google Earth and seeing how the property looks, is the house unkempt, how appealing is the neighborhood, etc. 

Why on earth would you accept personal checks ?