I think they contain solid information and will help lay a good foundation as a beginner (Haha, I'm completely new to real estate as well, btw)I'm also going to be reading the following books, and hopefully I can finish all by the end of this month:1) The ABCs of Property Management2) The Advanced Guide to Real Estate Investing3) Long-Distance Real Estate Investing How to Buy, Rehab, and Manage Out-of-State Rental Properties (this might be the most important one to me personally)4) The Book on Investing in Real Estate with No (and Low) Money DownIn addition to reading, I'm consuming crazy amounts of youtube videos, and I'recommend you do this as well.

Thanks There's never any guarantee you're going to get 100% of your own cash back out of the house especially in a short time frame.

This is the worst time of year to find a tenant . 

BTW there is a free trial and the Starter monthly plan is $119.It also allows you to search through consumer information such as property owner "credit worthiness," Credit card usage, buying power, age, language, family members in the house, and many other fields that are above and beyond property characteristics, which is unique.

It doesn't seem to be much in the way of appreciation over time, but would these be worth checking out for the beginning investor?

I weigh more on making 3x rent and having great rental history of on time payments with no evictions, no lease violations or violent criminal history.

But I want to now purchase a house with the first time housing program, would I be able to?  

There are a couple REIAs in the Tri-State area, but none of them are backed by the power of BP and the incredible people that it tends to attract.

I’ve been manually scouring Zillow/MLS for deals, but it’s time-consuming, and I’d love to streamline this.2.Has anyone experimented with using machine learning models (like classifiers or regression models) to rate properties based on their condition from MLS listing photos?

I find the vast majority of my stays are families that love the games and 30-40% of the time they bring their pet as well.