A newbie to real estate I met at a foreclosure auction asked me about real estate meetups in my area that are no cost.

EDUCATE YOURSELF - yes, it will take time, but will lead to a selection that better meets your expectations & avoids potentially costly surprises!

Rents will need to increase to keep up with the increase in property tax, insurance, maintenance cost etc.

Inventory should be higher near you with rising insurance costs and that could mean decent deals, but don't jump too quickly.

I have no experience estimating rehab costs and I know costs have drastically changed since books like J Scott's were released. 

The costs of land  , engineering , site work , permits , labor , and building materials make this virtually impossible . then there are zoning issues and the rest of the politics that go along with this . 

I used to have several out of state investors who would buy houses in Memphis via the online tax sale auction, then hold them for a year so the redemption period ended, then they would hire an attorney to "quiet" the title which would take 4-6 months and cost roughly $5000 but then they had clear title and would sell it "as-is" to other investors or hire me and list it on the MLS and get higher offers. 

Granted, I didn't pay for them so maybe my palate was skewed a bit as those that were sharing - I had several hard core collectors as customers turned friends -  they were often proud to share the price and method of obtaining, but I just don't feel the cost was worth the taste.

For more powerful financial software you can utilize Quickbooks, with much the same inputs but much more flexibility and greater detailing.  

If less than two years, cost seg probably isn't a good route.