Making sense of the deal and understanding their track record is important, of course, but I believe you should develop TRUST before you invest.

Others recommend tools like Stessa or Buildium to track actual costs and project future expenses. 

All you need is a single place to track tenant information, payment history, maintenance, and other things.

Long term goals in mind that I need a track record and capital for! 

We use a third party servicer to do all of this - much easier and when starting just tracked payments in wuickbooks as servicer tracked everything else 

I host a group for midterm rental operators and I had 2 people in last week's meeting essentially say the same thing.

If your leasing application process is thorough and well thought out, and if your lease agreement has been well drafted by your local attorney and if it includes clauses that permit you/your property manager enough latitude to maneuver and anticipate undesirable tenant behaviors, both actions and inactions, and you have operational processes which align with enforcement of your lease, then you've done all you can do to reduce this inherent risk of an undesirable tenant.  

What is the T12 Net Operating Income? 

After paying a competitive rate for the property management and ASSET management that the small operator does himself.  

Unlike some buyers, I ALWAYS go look at the properties before the sale and discovered that the vacant lot had an active railroad track on it and therefore was unbuildable, and would remain unbuildable until the railroad removed their track.