The first is a 5 property portfolio that consists of 3 triplexes and 2 duplexes with zero vacancies.

A boring, passive investment that simply delivers consistently.  

What are you all having success with in regard to producing consistent cash flow/income? 

Online... is a long and tedious process :) but if done consistently can be a great supplementary way of getting other folks to notice you and wanting to work with you...You just have to be honest, and even if you are a tire kicker and the newbie, as long as you present your journey showing who you are and where you are coming from and why you are thinking the way you are thinking then folks will learn to trust you, believe you and connect with you, which may or may not of course result in you get the right agent in your local area.Remember what may seem tire kicking to some, and means business as usual.... to you it's the entire life savings... type of decision...  

My basic instinct tells me that it is a wiser decision to get a rental with an already stable tenant in place you can see how they take care of the property for starters and they have a history with consistent payments....a little input on this please....Thanks

If you can get consistent, proven monthly positive cash flow of $100 in a Class A area, and $500 in a class D, which one would you choose?

I'll be tracking and analyzing the numbers for the future when I can afford to farm a larger area consistently.

I hope to meter this expense out to tenants but in case that is not an option, a rough estimate would help in running my numbers.I've been googling around and found the following approximations and wanted to see if they are consistent with what you all are seeing:-cost of insurance in VA to be ~$80 (I'm assuming this is for SFH)-vacancy about 5%, conservatively ~8%These are the factors I am not sure of in my calculations.

Is this consistent with what you all are aware of?

I understand that you prove legitimacy as an investor with consistent, on-time payments, but how does that formation of trust begin?