The deals on shell cabins are great but my due diligence is showing there'd be a lot of costs associated with doing (either) solar/public electric; well/public water; septic; etc. 

All public information. 

The facts are that while you'll predominantly pay at least 500K for a triple-deckers that's in not-so-great conditions, rents start at around 2K based off proximity to public transit and LOCATION alone.

You have to find the deals before they go public The last one is the tricky one but it can be done.

Locals tend to hold on to their perceptions of communities.

Point is, it's a public open forum, learn those who know and those who just blow. :) 

Same in RE, it's always about protecting the public, you won't kill someone being an idiot investor, the attention hasn't been that great, but things are changing.Unless you are actually qualified by education and experience you'll have issues selling ideas with deceiving techniques.

Not so much for people to read and comment on and all that blather, but shoot, if I write it down and it's public, even if no one sees it, I will know it's there and won't want the embarrassment of failure.And @Sam McPeek and @Troy Fisher - thanks so much for the very specific references on Dave Ramsey and the mindmapping / SMART goals - those types of things seem to suit me very well and are great, ready-made systems that I can plug-n-play and start creating results.

Since we are selling a perception, do you perceive Kitchenaid being better than Frigidaire?  

I'm a Public Librarian by trade who does a little bit of landlording on the side.