I have been toying with the idea of starting to purchase Multi-Family units in these C and D areas as they are so cheap and handing them off to a management company simply not to deal with that class of tenants.

Mine was pretty limited until recently and I'm trying to figure out just when to drop this.... or maybe decide that we keep it for the long haul, and eventually tear it down and build a nice vacation home once it's paid off.  

To be a successful real estate investor over the long term, you need to understand each of these and how to use them to maximize your profits throughout the lifetime of the investment.There are certain conditions whereby I would buy a property with break even cash flow on day one ... in that case I would look to the other profit centers for my return initially ... for example I would buy below retail and remodel to force appreciation (2), and if I chose a well located property in a neighborhood with high demand and persistently limited supply of housing then with time and rent increases (2) and eventually paying off the mortgage (3) I would in the long haul get cash flow (3), and writing off interest, depreciation, etc. the whole time to lower my tax bills (4).

That said, many businesses are a path to wealth over the long haul...

I'm a firm believer that anybody that is in this for the long haul needs to have a business plan with specific metrics they can track on both a monthly and annual basis.

We have certain areas (toy towns) in Memphis that absolutely make for a solid and sound investment. 

If you are in it for the long haul, doing it off the books would be ok, but then you run the risk of resale not being what it could be if it were conforming to the neighborhood.

I hope you are able to stick around for the long haul as you will learn plenty and much more that you have a sport background as a base to fuel all your ambitions..

Being a GC, your subs have inclusions and exclusions, you have to cover all those exclusions, say for example the sub excludes trash removal or dumpster fees and only includes demolition and trash haul 30 feet from the driveway, meaning if you cant get a dumpster in there, you as the GC is responsible of paying all dumpster fees and all expenses of the hauling the extra few feet from that.

I have no delusions that that will be easy nor come quickly; I'm in this for the long haul.