Thanks,Sarah  G'Day Sarah,Congrats on the leap of faith into the wonderful world of real estate investing.Best tip I could give you would be to take your time and soak up as much information on anything and everything real estate.Be it buying locally or out of state, the most important thing is to establish trust and relationships with key people dependent on the strategy you are looking at implementing.Over my career I have witnessed countless of investors getting caught up in online market stats, demographics, charts, etc... only to end up loosing money.As cliche as it mind sound but "Team-work makes the dream work"For example, if you buy the best house, in the best area, on the best street with the best capital growth prospects but your property manager is incompetent or a cheat.

For paid softwares, it depends on the scale of your investments.

Hey guys, I know most of the time it’s important to buy in a landlord friendly state so this way you’re protected in case of an eviction & it’s in favor for you, the investor.My whole strategy has been to have tenants that have vouchers to section 8 bc of payments being guaranteed depending if tenant needs a lot of assistance.My only issue is that I am in a tenant friendly state here in NJ.

Agents can be a godsend or a headache, depending on the day!

We have spent about $500-$800 on attorney costs at closings depending on the complexity.

For conventional, depending on how many points you might end up paying, you'll be in the 7's, up to 8%. 

It depends on what you want and how fast you want it.

It depends. 

Really depends on your market and what your comps are selling with.

This all depends on your risk tolerance.