I also look at the payout ratio to get an idea if the dividend is likely to survive an economic shock.

They're often interesting and sometimes pretty deep for their brevity, but ultimately they are as forgettable as a Justin Timberlake song.

You need to learn about sourcing leads, what goes into a rehab, how to run comps, etc. to ultimately be successful as a wholesaler.  

The ultimate goal, of course, is to have enough passive income to get out of the rat race, as Robert Kiyosaki would say, and not have to work.My big questions are how do you get started? 

Im guessing it's just a matter of semantics but worth pointing out anyways as I think this is where a lot of new investors go wrong and ultimately end up buying themselves a job rather than an investment.

Ultimately I do want to do multi family investing.

Ultimately this caused me to the pull the deal. 

I admit that I don't have experience in the commercial MF area, but after finding BP two weeks ago, I've been learning a lot from reading blogs, forum discussions, Ultimate Beginners Guide, and obsessively listening to BP podcasts.

However I wrote The Ultimate Guide to Grading Cleveland Neighborhoods to give some solid background info on the Cleveland market to help you (& others) make that decision for yourself(s). 

I recommend giving the Ultimate Guide to Grading Cleveland Neighborhoods a read.