Comes down to cost vs. benefit.

Any suggestions for classes to take that may benefit me when starting out.

The benefit to having specialty contractors is two fold in my opinion.

Then you can have your own list, but still benefit from all the other info those services provide.

A different strategy is to occupy a house for at least 2 years, while adding value; sell...military has better tax benefits...can exclude capital gains taxes over 10 years of holding.  

This unfortunately ruins it for the rest of my investors who still would like to make a pretty penny in promising/developing neighborhoods.I have seen many of my seasoned investors start to migrate to properties in Germantown and the outskirts of U-City as well as Grays Ferry as that neighborhood has experienced the trickle gentrification from Point Breeze the same way that Port Richmond has felt the benefits of Fishtown/East Kenzo. 

You have to subtract the original $230k you paid out of pocket first...which leaves you with $715k.Now, subtract all the lost income (now negative CF) from the months that you had vacancies, Maint. costs, CAPEX, etc...assuming 15% of rent per year, that's about $15k x 15 years = $180k...which leaves you with $535k in virtual profit.IF we just stopped there, you would have gotten $35k/year return (on average).Now, comes the big money losses.You will be operating at an average loss (and this is real money due to cash out of pocket to pay for expenses not covered from rent due to now negative cash flow)  per year of at least $15k.If you had invested those losses (and since the source would have been liquid this is not a virtual thing) at a measly 5% per year, and reinvested it all every year, you'd be at almost $800k in actual real money.Anytime you accept hard cash losses, you are losing the benefit of your cash being a "verb" instead of a "noun"...and you lose all the compounded profit from you cash being reinvested and in action...forward action.

For me, I have no real obligations that require my additional time, so I choose to put in the work now when it's easy so I can reap the benefits later when it would be tougher.

And what is the benefit of SECO electric service.

I still have all the benefits of owning it IE use it any time .. but only pay when i actually use it..