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.

IE bad tenant etc.but this is far more complex than that.And when you have owners who for a good length of time were receiving rent only to find out their homes were in fact vacant or had squatters in them.. that reeks of a Ponzi type situation.Also when you do your digging .. another critical element is that it appears through Morris or oceanpointe direction the title company used OP address as the return address for code violations etc.. so it was easy for them to sell vacant shells pay rent on them.. then pocket the code violations and the owners who never set foot or would set foot in Indy had no clue anything was wrong..

I work part time maintenance at a 104 unit apartment complex right now.