just fyi  Jacksonville has some horrendously tough hood areas were real estate simply is not viable. but the houses get regurgitated like this..

:@Matt Nettles the only people that have done well on turnkey, that ive met, did so early on in the market cycleMichael, I think Ben stated it best so I wont regurgitate it, but this comment above struck me while reading all the answers here.

I would prefer more than just an accountant who regurgitates what the computer says.

It's just hard to figure out in the REI environment which programs are truly worthwhile and which ones are just some guru regurgitating a bunch of junk.  

he or she is just regurgitating what the guru sales pitch is.. 

There are many professionals in your situation.Wanting to invest in real estate but do not know how to get started.A competent real estate broker can help you determine investment goals and direction.Gurus will suck you dry in fees,boot camps,manuals,etc. and most of it is regurgitated junk.I am not a fan of the multiple house scenario.Unless grouped closely together you run into economies of scale issues.I much prefer apartment buildings or commercial triple net leases or retail strip centers for income.You can also invest with a hard money lender and just get your returns that way.There is risk in anything you do.The goal is to minimize it as much as possible.Do you just want to own property as a tax shelter to lower your income tax bracket??

This truly sounds like some guru sputum you have bought into and regurgitated here for others to enjoy.

Michelle,The answers above are all good and correct, so I won't regurgitate them.

Rather than regurgitate the same info over again, suggest you do a search on BP for "how to estimate repair costs".

It's regurgitation and requires no level of high level thinking.