Living in WA isn't exactly the best at finding local deals that cash flow and I understand that today's market is not what it was ten years ago.

Grab a fixer-upper, spruce it up, rent it out for sweet cash flow, then refinance to recycle your investment.

Womp wompIf $4000 is 3 years cash flow this is probably not a good deal.I have a minimum cash flow requirement of about $4000/year due to the cost of things like roof, HVAC, vacancy, painting etc.Have you penciled the deal out to make sure it makes sense?

Or they can keep, and the cash flow will significantly higher than than the P/I payment. 

I’m interested in learning all about RE investing for cash flow and to have freedom of time, location and have a cash flow of 5k/mth from RE investment. 

It still works well and cash flows just fine, but you can't be lazy.

Why would an investor who’s making say 5-10k a year in cash flow want to pay thousands of dollars to file their taxes?   

There are plenty of offerings out there that will target 18%+ but you could have the same chance of losing everything as getting 18%.You looking for cash flow play or an equity / upside play?

It will be a negative cash flow at least the first year until I move out. 

Buy or inherit and hold for a long time, then cash out and redeploy equity into potentially higher cash flowing properties or other investments.2.