Jeremy, you are doing what I wanted to do when I was stationed @ NATTC Branch Clinic as the LPO (USN). 

Trial and error.....link up with a few of them in your area, get on their buyers list and start looking at the deals they send you.

For one, we just completed a trial and the owner will have to pay over $17k back to the community through a bankruptcy plan, which has been a very long and costly battle.

Chris Mason,This is definitely a trial and error for me.

You will get good experience in the trials and tribulations of being a Landlord. 

New Mac's normally come with a 60 day trial of office and after that you end up having to pay anyways, so it would only be a temporary solution.

thanks, will look into it...and QB, yes I did the work around myself, with excel and combining the info from the P&L, Trial balance and original investments, but that is a real pain... 

So that you CAN achieve as much as that one dude who had to endure grueling periods of trial and error and pain with 1/10th the pain and effort. 

Tenant also showed up at court without a lawyer, showed a lawyer's business card (claiming his lawyer) and requested to have a jury trial.

I had learned how to sell options, how to remodel my house, how  to day trade, how to start a self directed ira, I started a Physical Therapy clinic, mined bitcoin, made a few websites, I think I may have even learned how to raise chickens/honeybees/ and grow organic vegetables.