Please share any great data sources you have found or tips on evaluating areas.My 1-year goal is to purchase 3 multi-family properties, with 8 to 40 units, at least $5000/month of initial cash flow, and some opportunities to improve operations and increase cash flow.I am hoping to forge alliances with like-minded investors to fund Win-Win deals.I am so excited that I have officially started my RE Investing journey!

You can ask this to be increased to $1M or $2M. 

I could learn how to fix a simple plumbing problem at my house.

Heloc rates are terrible right now even if you have a low first mortgage the blended rate is usually higher than a simple refinance. 

@Nathan Gesner Great tip on the month-to-month basis with a 25% increase.

We went from a historic less than 50% collection month over month, to our highest collection of 80% in a given month.Today is March 6th and we collected 32% of the rent - A major increase.

NOI x CAP RATE = purchase price Simple example: $100,000 x 9 = $900,000You can then use pro forma numbers say after you raise rents, fill vacancies etc to project future value if you wanted to sell later on. new NOI x higher cap rate$130,000 x 10 = $1,300,000$130,000 x 11 = $1,430,000and so on.

If you renovate, could you increase the rents by a lot?

It would be great if they could have the option of reporting to credit bureaus to increase their credit score. 

Well I probably need more details, but to keep it simple.