Check out my personal favorite, Set For Life by Scott Trench , or The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey.3.

Conventional mortgages require higher FICO, reserves (money set aside to pay the loan), tax returns...just on that note, they typically won't count any income from the property rents until that money hits your tax returns for 2 years. 

I’ve had two sets of tenants that have both stayed 2 years with the current tenants probably planning to stay longer than that.

As a beginner this is me giving  ground to set my real estate goals and start working toward them.

I'm trying to get myself set up with some analysis tools for MF investments, and I really like the "Value Play" model that Berges has in his "Complete Guide to Buying and Selling Apartments".

Particularly be sure to include your goals for real estate investing so that folks can help you. 2) Follow your favorite forum topics and set up keyword alerts!

As someone new looking to get started and hopefully set myself up for retirement in ~15 years, is that enough time or should I just put all my money in a brokerage account and save myself a lot of aggravation ? 

Set up keyword alerts to be notified of the topics that interest you: http://www.biggerpockets.com/alertsWishing you the best!

Tile takes time to set, humidity from showers will affect mudwork and paint, and this is all assuming that your plumbing can be handled in a few hours or works as is. 

As it pertains to RE Investing what are your:Skill sets, Available resources, Interests, Long term goals