@Michael Whiting, There are a couple of ways to do this depending on your desires and desired direction.1.

I'd make sure to have a clear cut criteria of the tenant you want in the property to help direct the PM company.I spoke with another investor that uses a real estate agent in New Jersey to help place her long-term tenants.

I believe I may need guidance in the right direction for private equity and possibly making sure it is a good deal.

Under the Public Records Act, the city should respond to your request within 10 days, letting you know whether it will release the records or not, and if not, exactly why (citing the specific exemption and describing how it applies to the records that you seek).

There are many ways to market directly to sellers: Cold calling, SMS, Direct mail, Door knocking, PPC, PPL, SEO, Facebook ads, Radio, etc 

I am familiar with there BRRRR method though as BP talks about it, which leads me to a Q.This is just an example: If an unkept/foreclosure property was purchased for $100K, in a neighborhood that mostly has houses for $200K, and the investor put in $70K for renos for this value-add, then cash-out refi's at $200K, he/she just made $30K to then apply to another purchase, which seems to be what BP talks about a lot.

I hope to be able to apply what I learn here to building my own income-generating real estate portfolio and eventually creating passive income for myself so I can spend more time with my kiddo!

if you want to get in front of owners just market directly to sellers.

I've seen conflicting information on when/whether these costs are deductible — most, including Pub. 536, seem to apply to the *purchase* of a rental property, and resources that deal with sales have focused heavily on either straight-up sales with capital gains taxes or on 1031 exchanges with deferred gains.

But, ok, sure, but you are saying that just because the loan is not on your credit report has no advantage when applying for the next mortgage correct?