And the homes that are on the MLS  that are excessively cheap have been on the market for a long time and just seem suspicious.

I have been in this deep stage for a while and am looking for ways to improve.

Still in the self-education/pre-investment stage, does anyone recommend a new investor like myself hiring a full service property management company, or can I initially only hire for tenant placing and vetting, while I personally perform handyman and interim repairs for new leases?  

I noticed on your profile that you said you would like to find a multifamily to get started, what stage of your research are you at with finding one?

I"ve build a few houses and have done quite a few renovations and in my experience people have a hard time visualizing things from a plan, but it seems you are well past the plans stage where they can actually be in the house and see the size of the rooms etc....The other side of the coin is in the finishes, you can spend 50/square foot just as easy as you can spend 500/square foot on finishes, so you want to make sure your clear on those things so you can explain exactly what will be there when it's finished.

In 25+ years, I have never had a tenant challenge a deduction in court.....many whine about it thoughGetting damages in excess of the deposit in Texas is fruitless as we have no garnishment and judgements are nearly impossible to collectUsing tile or laminate alleviates the issue

The fourplex is a recent purchase in the final stages of rehab (should be completed this week).  

The neat thing about a timber harvest permit is you can build logging roads under this same permit  No inspections nothing.. well our logging roads happen to be right were we would put our access roads for the short plat.. the landings  ( were you stage the logs to be loaded on the trucks) would be our building pads..

Right now we're just in the investigation stage. 

I am in the learning stages but boy am I eager.