-A water heater issue resulted in repeated mismanagement—confusing unit assignments—leading to extra costs to fix the same issue 3 times and on each occasion "more fixes" needed to the water heaters that I plumber said was needed.

Others rely on networking... hooking up with probate or divorce attorneys who sometimes have leads on properties that aren’t widely marketed.If you decide to hire a property manager in the Jasper area, maybe chat with a few owners who’ve used them.

I’ve been working probate leads here in San Diego for some time and your words are right on point…lot of time for sometimes little to no return. 

Focusing solely on numbers often leads to the purchase of low-quality properties.

So the lead gen from Bigger Pockets and other places where one can publish their real estate content is going to get flooded with more looky loos and tire kickers, whereas before there were so many ultra aggressive investors one would probably not notice the looky loos and tire kickers as much because they were easier to ignore.

Do you get a lot of leads on Furnished Finder?

I'm sure there are great, stable areas in Columbus but I'm not convinced the appreciation has been as strong as most would lead you to believe.I don't know much about Cincinnati, but one glance at the median list price over the past 5 years (attached below) would be enough for me to write it off as not appreciating.I'm personally partial to Detroit and that's where I invest and do a lot of business with other folks as well.

Changes to local landlord/tenant laws and new situations involving tenants lead to these annual updates.

Not aware of a lender that will allow a rookie to do this.Recommend either starting smaller and working your way up to this or partnering with someone you can learn from that can be your lead with lenders, etc.

Make a plan that eventually leads to owning property that throws off cash after you purchase it.