Connect with them and have them invite you for a meet up around the area.Good luck in your endeavors.

It has proven *incredibly* difficult to find any insurance company that will insure the property, much less at a reasonable premium.I have checked with numerous companies over the course of a week - Lemonade, USAA, Progressive, All State, Wawanesa Insurance, Hippo, Liberty Mutual, Mercury Insurance, Amica, etc.

For example the dozens of folks that have guaranteed they will lease my unit with cash in hand "tomorrow", the numerous contractors that have said they will arrive at X time for the emergency plumbing/heating/electrical work, or the tenants who say they'll have the money in by X.

Thanks to BP and numerous books I finally felt confident enough to take the plunge and buy a triplex.

Numerous homeowners in the area employ the buy and rent strategy, like you had mentioned, and it works out nicely for everyone.

Take 4 courses a semester to maintain full-time status (there are numerous benefits to that status), get a RE license as soon as possible, and start making networking inroads.

We have inherited numerous tenants living in properties with an oral lease with the seller and have bought properties where the tenant names were not even completely documented-- all they had was a first name and an oral lease (jodi, apt. #1, 375.00, tommie smith, apt #2 ) We have tenants where the original lease holders have moved out and left adult children who never signed a new lease.

Not saying all realtors are shady but during the 2008-2012 period I made at least 10-15 seprate offers on hot properties in socal and numerous of times I saw a property end up being sold for less than i offered.

You want to think of the 1031 as just the vehicle that can be used to reposition those assets in numerous ways. 

@Ryan BoltmanWe've helped many investors just like yourself build a successful rental portfolio across numerous cash flow markets.