I did have a relative living there and my wife went to school there so I had some familiarity with the city. 

Cash flow is usually strong because rent prices are decent, and the cost of the property is relatively low compared to places like California.

The best way to connect and learn is to be in rooms where it's going down.In terms of captial your best bet is to focus on a primary income that cash flow sufficiently, saving as much as you can and doing something real estate related so you can get familiar with the industry.

Unlike some of our other tax-related debates, this one is actually important to a lot of people. 

Ask if any of the contractors are related to the PMC's employees. 

WIth that said "passive" is relative lol. 

Because I purchase properties like that I feel we attract tenants that we can relate to which helps us on the property management side with communication and working through issues.Why do you believe there is a higher likelihood of negative cash flow with BRRRR?

However, for this first property, I was mainly focused on a market I am relatively close to and knew well (Houston) and somewhere that the appreciation would probably make up for the cash flow in the long run. 

As it relates to lease end dates I've seen two things work here. 1) You can stagger end dates as mentioned above or 2) you can optimize for summer - this works better for us in areas where you see students or families with school age children moving to align with the summmer months.Separately, this is a great argument against month-to-month leases.  

That is relative, of course, but to expect rock bottom rates and prime terms is not realistic.