We get a pretty fat book with all of the research and projected financials for the first 5 years. 

I just got burned by my last tenant who left some significant damages without any way to pay for them.

I have learned that it is easier/bettrr to allow animals and get a fat refundable deposit.

I watched an episode of Suze Orman where a middle-class couple received a $2 million inheritance and burned through it in a matter of years.

Please note that there is plenty of opportunity out there and if you try to do it all, you may very well end up scattered & eventually burned out.There's an awesome book/philosophy out there called Essentialism: The disciplined pursuit of less (versus the undisciplined pursuit of more) by Greg McKeown.I personally only invest in Self Storage. 

Addressing the problems is like trying to put out small individual fires in a forest that is burning.

2: How do you account for bringing rents to market, i.e. burning off loss to lease. 

LOL.. non appreciating rentals need to be held forever or your going to be stroking a check to sell them.. unless your 1031 and for ever going to landlord.. that's a given.. you need appreciation to pay the recapture and gain from basis andif they are SFR's and you are going to retail them you need 5 to 20k to take your beat up rental and make it nice enough that a family will buy it to live in.I went through this with new construction I bought in 05 ish.. what was in style then was not when I went to sell in the last few years. as I exit my rentals  tile counters NO good  need slab granite.. builder grade appliances Nope need new stainless.. etc etc I would say I put 10k on average into each home to sell them.. then it took 90 180 days of them sitting there vacant then I had recapture.. so to me the juice of these is simply not worth the squeeze I would rather sell real estate have no debt and make nice fat 10 to 20k checks..

I have 3 kids (under 4) so as you can imagine living in a townhouse has been difficult.I have $500k in liquid and have always had the mindset of buying my new primary residents using cash as I've been burned by loans in the past.. 

I have 3 kids (under 4) so as you can imagine living in a townhouse has been difficult.I have $500k in liquid and have always had the mindset of buying my new primary residents using cash as I've been burned by loans in the past..