The pivot table has rows for Income and Expenses by property (simplified for example), with the properties as columns.I want to insert ROWS (not columns!)

This approach simplifies the loan process by dealing with a single lender and potentially consolidating your debt and credit profile.Lastly there's private lenders or hard money lenders.

Even worse is that you will spend time trying to pay attention to this instead of learning about real estate.I’d simplify it, get a good budget month by month on how much you want to save.

David Toupin has a cool more simplified tool as well.

This simplifies the application process, allowing you to complete it from the comfort of your home and receive prompt approval.Considerations for Home Improvement LoansBudgeting: Before applying for a home improvement loans, assess your budget and determine how much you can comfortably afford to borrow and repay.

If the software is not simplifying your life or making you more accurate, you shouldn't use it.Software does have extremely helpful features like online payments, marketing syndication (click a button and your property is advertised on multiple sites), electronic document review/signing, maintenance tracking, and owner reports.

This is simplified, of course. 

@Dan Maez, I'll simplify how I would look at this.

I'll give you a super simplified example: if you buy a property and say you're NOT living in there, and then you do move into it; now the lender could be in violation of a litany of laws, including consumer protection laws, just based on what disclosures they did or didn't send out to you during the loan process, the rate, the fees, the terms, etc. 

Some of the best agents I have worked with know how to analyze deals, are able to simplify abstract concepts to you, and have great communication, regardless of their real estate investing experience.