Since you are new You might want to check out the ultimate free beginners guide

I still remain interested in fix and flipping, but my ultimate goal is more rooted in long-term buy and holds, likely via small multi family units.  

Ultimately I decided against it.

Also, professionals do not always agree on the best way to calculate the ultimate return on real estate.

I think if you can learn a lot of the tricks of the big ticket trades, plumbing/electric/HVAC aka fixing the common problems, then you can survive a lot of costly service calls.  

We can all state our opinions as to whether you have any fault here, but ultimately it isn't what happened, it is what you can prove happened.

Your lease terms are up for negotiations, but ultimately the local customary terms (what is common in your market) are going to be pretty close to where u end up settling at.

In the end, I think I'm just looking for good people and that will ultimately convince me on where to invest. 

Bottom line is to keep a professional distance and interaction to have know-how on what is happening with the property as ultimately when the eviction of the property happens, no matter how good you are, you will be left with repair works as a return gift. 

Am I better off keeping the car with hopes to sell it for 10-12k once I completely own it OR buy a cheaper car (7-9k), make less payments, and ultimately own it in 60 months as well.