Know that chosen neighborhood better than anyone else including the real estate agents.Then when a deal comes up, you can buy with confidence.Most guru's act like there is a magic formula that only they know, I just don't think that is the case, and even the ones that do provide value are probably best suited to someone who has done a couple of deals on their own in the first place.Just my two cents, best of luck to you. 

Finances - Quickbooks Desktop Version (I don't like the Online version and it costs more money)Asset Management - SmartSheet; it's like Excel on steroids (except for the formulas).

Can even find one from Craigslist for a song.

Most of the time the banks here don't even order a walk-through appraisal, they just send someone to drive by to make sure the house actually exists, and then us a formula based on comparable sales to decide if it's a go or not.

I'm having trouble finding a formula to help me figure out what the tax implications might be. 

Based on your post I would say your next step is to learn how to evaluate deals ie. the formulas and the numbers.

That's give you the value.NOI = Capitalization Rate X Value, or, as the formula is more commonly known, "IRV."

@Jared G. two things you need to learnHow to evaluate dealsLearn your market so you know what numbers to plug into the formulas. 

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(These are different formulas, because you are looking for different things within each DOM)9...and that's just the basics