I have no experience investing in real estate, but I'm educating myself daily to begin my REI career in the near future. 

All that said, what happens if after the 60 days cancellation period is up, the guy is still squatting on our property?

These costs should be discrete in my mind because they are CapEx, and not OpEx and will be incurred in a relatively short period of time after purchase, and are non recurring (over the short and mid terms).  

Do not replace carpet with carpet unless you have no choice.... in the long run, it will cost you more $$ since it will need to be fully replaced every 5-7 years on average and sometimes more often...and require professional cleaning periodically etc etc....LVP is my recommendation..... decent stuff is $3-4/sq ft (you can go cheaper) and will last much longer and hold up better

So things that are red flag for me may be fine for someone more aggressive.1) Portfolio matching: (takes 30 seconds per deal)a) Have an educated opinion on where you think we are in the real estate cycles (financial and physical market cycles)b) Then only then pick the strategies, capital stack, and specialized asset subclasses that make sense for that opinion.

Read books on multi-family to educate yourself and network with other investors.My very best!

If you have to prorate, then it should be (at a minimum) prorate+last+deposit, with the next full rent payment due at the beginning of the next period.

It’s evident that you’ll still need to invest into yourself, your knowledge base and real estate education before you or your friends and family invest in you and real estate.

There's also this one:https://www.meetup.com/713-Houston-Area-Real-Estat...They do a Woodlands meetup, I believe.Lots of folks and some good education, although all of them are trying to sell coaching and training to some degree.

For good tenants I sign an extension for a certain time period.