I second @Daniel Gibson recommendation to get involved with local groups; it's a great way to network and learn about local issues to supplement what you're learning from places like the BP podcasts.  

In short, these are great supplement tools to make screening or receiving payment more convenient, but they are not substitutes for developed intuition and property management.

@Devin Redmond Do you feel the goal of Stessa is to replace Quickbooks (or other software) or just supplement them? 

Supplemental rental income?

Most of their content is generic real estate investment hype with the typical buzz words applied.

If your goal is to have 1 or 2 rentals as supplemental income as you age, then I agree paying off all debt sounds great. 

This is better than I expect the mutual funds in my 401k portfolio to perform(10-12%) Plus I would like to eventually use some of the cash flow to supplement my income before retirement age. 

Sorry for generic questions, I'm still new enough that I am not fully sure how to get my foot in the door.  

@Christopher Mooney- HELOCS are relatively  generic  from one lender to another ...check terms ...margin...indexes ..maximum ltv and cltv  allowed ...interest only payment  terms ...overall terms ....prepayment  options .   

Why is that I can buy a SFH at 640k no problem, but I cant buy a triplex even though I have been approved to make the mortgage payment without even considering the supplemental rent if I had to?