I've read blogs and watched YouTube and of course have seen Grant Cardone go on and on about commercial apartment complexes being the end-all-be-all so it got me thinking that I was doing something wrong..

Those are mistakes typically though which are way over improved for the area.Talk to some hard money lenders and they have war stories where a complex was completely made new with amenities in a wrong area and tenants paid for 2 months and then trashed the place again.

I'm in the early stages of analyzing an apartment complex for sale in my target area.

Keep in mind that non owner occupied appraisal assignments require additional forms and therefore cost more than a typical non complex, owner occ, sfr.

I started small with houses and duplexes and then picked up 12 and 16 unit complexes in the past few years.

For the investors that are investing and buying apartment complexes in several different states with multiple properties how often do u go and visit your properties ,tAlk to your property management companies and things of this nature ?

Its not a difficult or complex process, though it will take some time and something like $10-20K in legal costs. 

I want to start investing in Apartment complexes (6-10 units to start).

The boards also have the ability to limit the number of LTR in a complex.

I got a couple of bids before hiring him that ranged from $7,000-$25,000 which all seem expensive since it doesn't seem like that complex of a job, but I'm originally from a much less expensive area so perhaps I'm just underestimating the costs of work like this in SoCal.