Partly because I plan to semi-retire at the end of next year. 

Martin,, only financing you will be able to get in your situation is semi private financing you will not get bank financing form an state or federal chartered institution most likely.

I'm pretty similar to Jon Klaus - BA in History, 1 year of semi-seminary :) Weird!

Financial Analyst try to be accurate most of the time and review and change projections quarterly (I believe semi annual review is enough for real estate.) 

Apparently, the mess we left behind was so grand, he had to do a semi-rehab.

We go with white ceiling, and a semi gloss beige / yellow across the portfolio.

I currently live I'm California but invest in Hamilton...I actually closed on my latest investment property a 3 bedroom semi I purchased for 136k...and will rent for $1200/mth....so cashflow is def doable ...just takes a lot of hard work to dig out the deals.....I went over a year without buying a rental and purchased two in December and one in march...I now have 5 rentals in Hamilton and another in the GTA.Shoot me a pm if you need any advice or direction...all the best!

I'm thinking about doing this myself w/ my retirement funds and also trying to convince my semi-retired dad to do the same. 

Costs from the previous owner were scarce but gave me enough to do a semi-accurate analysis.

I say that I am a semi-newbie, because I already have one rental property (which was a condo I used to live in), and I think I have made all the mistakes possible with it.