I would very much like to find and attend any group meetings as I prepare to jump into REI!

In a slower market, selling by owner can take forever.Be prepared to show the home to prospective buyers by yourself, and be prepared to leave the home if they have representation.Do you know what your home is worth? 

Chances are the tenant won't even show up for court, but be prepared anyway, just in case.2, As for garnishments you have to do that through the court system.

These are non-assignable contracts so be r=prepared to either take on the property yourself or do a transactional loan to flip it to another.

Go to the housing court , take part of a day and sit thru a morning session so your familiar with how the housing court process is done.4. you can file the action yourself and it's nothing to be afraid of if you have a good idea of what you need to do and visiting the housing court will make you prepared.5.

@David Zheng would you work for an entire month taking phone calls 24/7, handling accounting, preparing statements, visiting properties, marketing, showing, handling repair requests, negotiating with vendors, paying those vendors, verifying the work they did, taking pictures of work, chasing tenants who don't pay, etc. for $100?  

Think about property taxes ( after year one of purchase: prepare for California supplemental property tax) .

Be prepared to pay the filing costs up front.

The 10 second comparison your tax preparer does compares MFJ vs MFS.  

I have prepared seven letters with different contents which will be mailed every 3 wks to the same contacts.