Currently working as a digital marketing director for an agency and saving up some investment seed money to get started. 

On the positive end, house prices are far less expensive in most areas, the availability of homes below market value is excellent and the ability to both use rental income to pay down the loan on the property and make monthly income at the same time is there.

I work in excel all day and find myself using layouts, functions etc.

Run the numbers on an excel spreadsheet and see whats the profit margin even as a rental.

Just use Excel as easy.Now about which version you should use.

Doing it at the wrong time is what took many people under.Right now certain asset classes are excellent for leveraging.CD's and savings accounts really do not pay anything at all.

@Milton Figueroa   excellent points...

While the data is excellent and affordable, it isn't intended to be the only tool in your tool chest.

You will find that will a very well reseached and well managed fund, you can achieve consistent and reliable double digit returns, which is going to be very competitive if not exceed your return on SF investments in most situations.  

So far the best I can find is a simple excel spreadsheet.