However - if what Jay claims is true about needing 10+ years before you can hope to make money with a rental - that does not make me feel too warm and fuzzy about doing all this deal analysis and worksheet number crunching.

I'm curious to know how important is it that I find an accountant that can help me crunch numbers and get the most bang for my buck when it comes to deals and tax season.

This has really been limiting my data crunching abilities.

But that's just number-crunching. 

Typical 3 bed, 2 bath houses in the suburbs (2500sqf) with double garage and a pool sell for about $105 000. rental income in this market is not that good at the moment.Our banks are in good shape and have weathered the storm well but the global credit crunch has made our banks cautious.

Deeply appreciate anyone who can point me in another direction, based on what they're seeing and where they're investing after crunching their numbers.  

When I crunch the numbers to do a hard-money-loan, it just doesn't add up considering the interest rate I would have to pay (and the fact that I'm in a high property tax area...$17K per year for all four houses.)

That means crunching the numbers on every property.

After getting a few quotes from builders and crunching the numbers building just didn't make sense for me.

With the recent dip in sales and shelter in place orders I have been crunching numbers and got wondering if I should do this now.