It is my belief that the meetups that have names that are more social (such as have brew or social in the name) have a much larger percent of inexperienced investors than meetups that have more professional names.San Diego Creative Investors association (SDCIA), (North) San Diego Real Estate (N)SDRE, Private Lending Masters (run by a friend), etc are groups that have a good mix of experienced and beginners,but these are only samples. 

And would love to see a sample lease. 

Doing it this way to manage soft cost.I know a lot of people in the apartment business and hearing what he says, I can tell you that @Jerry Mason has a more reliable sample of what you might want to figure on spending.

@Will Barnard Hi Where can I find a sample spreadsheet to use as a template?

Does anyone have a good sample of one of these forms that they are willing to share?

BiggerPockets has a lot of great resources and while I'm not based in the NY area, there may be others here who can provide some of the unique documentation you're looking for -- I'll defer to them on providing those samples. 

Does anyone have a sample letter they could share.

Where could I find a good editable lease sample? 

@Linda Weygant an affidavit is commonly used for that purpose by the municipalities themselves - they require a proof of WC for registered contractors (so that permits can be obtained).Sample affidavit:http://cityoflancasterpa.com/sites/default/files/d...

However these books don’t go into the details on how to talk to a broker, how to structure an operating agreement, how to prepare a sample deal package etc.