Few things off top of my head are: - Reviewing existing lease agreements          - Rent roll           - Tenant payment history, on-time payments?         

Hi David thanks for getting back to me, its funny you mentioned kindskiptracing.com i came across them in the past few days... they seem to have some really good deals on skip tracing leads, especially for someone just starting off (pay as you go).

As a local investor and local Realtor, we run across off-market properties often and can help determine a fair price by providing an ARV (after repair value), and introducing you to some local contractors in the area.By the way, Lawrence has a local investor meetup every 2nd Wednesday of the month and Topeka has one on the 4th Wednesdays. 

If you purchase a property, many of the costs on the closing statement are added to your basis.There may be some items that are eligible for an immediate write off such as pro-rated taxes, interest, insurance and hoa dues.

At Lowes you will enjoy 5% off any purchase at the register which is more than you are likely to get back on your personal card.

I've also explored manually blocking off the calendar, but this requires constant attention and work. 

They will back off the sales price any "imputed" interest to determine a tax basis.3.

That sounds odd/off to me. 

In theory, solar power is cheaper that what the local utility charges so you could generate an (small) income off of your solar investment.

Any ideas on how to make this work without having to pay off the mortgage?