After sifting through a few sites that were clearly pyramid scheme type business opportunities, I stumbled across one link with a video of Josh Dorkin and Brandon Turner where they were breaking down the basics of REI.

Doing an llc could sift some of the income to your father, but you and your wife still get taxed on what You receive at your rate, your gets taxed on what He receives at his rate.The good news is 1) the depreciation loss will carry over to when you sell 2) unless you’re going to 1031 forever, depreciation is just “an interest free loan” anyway, as you add the depreciation back as income when you sell.

I would do a back of the napkin check of this by:Googling the name of the apartment complex and checking google reviews, as well as sifting through pictures to see if there was a very clear and present “value add” to be had.Skip tracing the LLC’s that owned these buildings to identify whether it was a viable target (REITs generally aren’t worth the call).Skip tracing the owners of the LLC and exhausting all resources to contact them.

Agreed Russ  law does not say accept FIRST applicant it says first Qualified .. you have Qualification standards I know for me for my few rentals I don't want to sift through 100s of apps  so I take the FIRST qualified app.. and sometimes I am busy and I just take the first reasonable app LOL.  

But there is only so much you can gain from the data Google spits out at you even if you have the patients and expertise to sift through it all.

That said, the 12-month moving average, which sifts through the recent volatility, shows construction now stands at the fastest pace since 2007.

Currently it takes more time to sift through more of the bad deals to find the good ones but if you’re good at analyzing deals it doesn’t take too long to do this.

I would like to get a deal done with Seller Financing however, sifting through all the hype and benefits, I can't seem to find information as to how people screw it up, common mistakes or errors in the contract/analysis.

But you have to sift through so much negativity that it isn't worth it in my opinion. 

To keep a long story short, I've got 100k+ equity in my condo and sifting through these forums to learn how to invest in a second, third, fourth, property to operate short or long term rentals.