If you are new and out-of-state, you are behind the 8-ball for sure and need to be very careful.

Learning as we go since we had the house anyways .With long drives I discovered Bigger Pockets and it has lit a fire under  my tuckus to get more properties and keep the ball rolling Thanks for the advice -More data analysis and research for whatever we 1031 into next will definitely be a priority .Best-C.

@Chris Simmons - I'll keep you posted on how it works out for me, hopefully I can get this ball rolling soon.

I finally spoke to Luis who told me, "we definitely dropped the ball.

We were fortunate to get the ball rolling fairly quickly and only have to fork out 1.5 months of mortgage on our own. my partner thinks he can do all the taxes for the home and depreciation on turbo tax, as that’s what he’s been doing forever since he’s a w2 earner.

My accountant and bookkeeper have been dropping the ball and just seeing if there are sofware options available I may not be aware of. 

Nobody has a magic 8 ball, but here’s my guess: after a decade-long bull run and skyrocketing home prices, things are feeling shaky.

Perhaps not a trend to consider across the city but any neighborhood that would attract college educated young professional families seems to be a good bet if you wanted to focus on this asset type.I plan to build 12 townhomes as a second phase of a condo/townhome project in a good area of Mount Airy near the Chestnut Hill boarder and even though I’m likely to years away from being ready to begin phase 2, my current plans are to keep the 12 homes as rentals for the precise reasons I outlined above.  

We don't have an instruction manual, crystal ball to the future, or a road map with guaranteed outcomes. 

And with more renovations, you will start to get better at ball parking things, but even then you will always uncover items, so make sure you are baking in enough profit, even after conservative renovation budgets to feel confident you won't lose money.