The simplest form is to do no general solicitation and advertising, and make the offering available only to people you have an existing relationship with.

It’s the simplest way to get a feel of what it is like to be a landlord without going through the hassle of managing rehab projects.

That "ingredient" does not exist today.

This book will give a person the #1 most important and necessary ingredient to "make it" in REI, that's an INVESTORS mindset.

This is the simplest method, but it also means your tenants are more likely to abuse the utilities by leaving windows open with the heat or A/C running, leaving lights on, ignoring the toilet that constantly flushes on its own, etc.3.

In other words, what would you say is the first step for each ingredient ?

The ingredients to disaster!

The simplest thing to do is take your cash-flow after expenses but before debt service and multiply it by your effective tax rate, that will give you an estimate on the taxes you will owe.

So doing taxes myself is simplest as is my rental expenses / CAPEX tracking system.I use erentpayments.com for applications, credit check (they farmed this feature out recently), and rent collection.   

But I’ve got my apron and trying to collect my ingredients!