I told him eventually I'd like to explore portfolio loan once I get a few more properties and he acted like we should be able to figure something out.

I'm born and raised in the Portland, OR area and am interested in exploring single and multi-family investment properties.

I know a lot of people use excel, but I'd prefer a true database program for better data integrity, scalability, and creating reports.I've searched the forums and looked in the BP files but nothing is coming up in the search (either I'm not searching right, or no one else is dumb enough to want to build their own database).

I've seen some videos online but they seem dated by downloading your data information directly from Facebook or from importing to Yahoo. 

Have you explored any other markets than the two you mentioned? 

As far as splitting the utilities goes if you live in it for a year or 2 you will have historical data for how much it all costs and you can either build it into the rent or charge a pro rata share to each tenant each month.

You can always explore other areas of real estate later, but get good at one thing to start.

You would have to know what market rents are, what actual rents are, operating data, etc.

The data from Wharton County Appraisal District may have little or no validity or it could be spot on - you just never know without comparable data. 

The data I've seen predicts growth into 2020 and then leveling off for a bit.It's likely I'll be leaving the city next year.