I purchased my first complex over a year ago (114 Units) and I assure you it comes with many headaches that a typical SFR rental does not.

As long as you provide assurances and follow through that the repairs will be done and the unit will be professionally cleaned, applicants will understand if it isn't perfect. 

As a software developer, I can assure you that using a prebuilt solution is always the right choice until you achieve some scale.If you were going completely custom, I couldn't imagine getting away for less than $50k.

Can't help gently pointing out that, despite assurances from my colleagues @Daniel Hyman, @Ashish Acharya and @Basit Siddiqi, it is not automatically "100% deductible."

The "warm and fuzzy's" you are reading about lately are really only costing you money and it adds up I assure you. 

I can assure you that it is out there.

I said earlier that it's riskier not going to college because to get financing (and you almost assuredly will use financing) for real estate you'll basically need W-2 income.

As Karl indicated Erie is not the easiest or most affluent city around however it can be lucrative .rest assured there’s plenty of investors in the shadows crushing it where others fail and that can be said for any city really !

More importantly, assure what it does not need to do for you.People in my field (tech) look at ambiguity as a huge opportunity to make money.

Some things that would give me some assurance are maybe multiple appraisals and if the property was listed on an active market.