I have neither kids or college housing...

If you're looking at turning a primary residence into a rental, there's the additional advantage of having a community "on the ground" at your unit.As an example, our unit in Burbank, CA, is in a condo community, and the online community forum has helped us greatly: when another owner rented to a bad tenant, we knew about it before our tenant complained and could handle the situation proactively.

Looking to find rentals in my area, preferably near colleges like you said @Paul Timmons.

I am a recent college grad residing, and hopefully soon investing, in Racine, WI (between Milwaukee and Chicago).

Keep everything accessible online (cloud storage, google docs, email account, tablet always on you, whatever..), write down things as soon as your think of it (I use OneNote on my microsoft phone, or there are plent of free apps..), and set calendar reminders as soon as the thought is in your mind.These processes have saved me in both my 9-5 and my real estate investments!

I do go to realtors for expired listings but i rather look at them myself sometimes and theres a way to find a near expired listing online...

I have been looking at Dallas recently because I like the economy, price levels, and I have family in the area.I stumbled across BP online about a year ago and have been loving the content quietly.

And, James, thanks for that tip - I'll definitely keep that in mind as I move forward.Also, I definitely plan to honor the current lease agreement, I just wondered how to approach raising the rent when the lease was up, or how I can check the background of the current tenants so I know whether they are reliable.Here are some of the other numbers that I was able to track down today:Insurance: $692/year through one bank that I talked toTaxes: 567.76/year for 2013Using these numbers and an online mortgage calculator I came up with $262 for the monthly mortgage payment for a conventional loan.

I'm a 26 year old college graduate working a full time job while working full time in real estate.

I say "I just need to get some quick information about the house right now and then I will take a look at the information and the neighborhood online, and if it looks like we can help I'll come take a look at the house, so how many bedrooms do you have?...