As well, you'll also want to have a due diligence and/or feasibility clause which will allow you to get out of the contract if you change your mind - or in the case of wholesaling, cannot find an end buyer.

And Krystal please remember and not to scare you away when your doing your research remember that probate is a public process - loss of privacy -exposure to predators from the PR's point of view.

I doubt repairs are only 2,880 per door with 104 doors.Carpet and paint alone depending on unit sq ft size would eat up 2k a door.I haven't even gotten to  mechanicals or the exterior parking lot, roof, windows, water and sewer laterals, and  a host of other issues depending on when the property was built.You can have big rewards but huge losses if you do not have the experience.  

One was an inherited home, which I could buy for around 20k under property value, with owner financing the down payment (I like the idea of no money out of our pockets--wasn't sure if that was really feasible).

While you should have a decent amount of cash reserves for any contingencies, putting money in savings just mean guaranteeing your loss through inflation.

When that happens, you get mold, rot and loss of integrity of those surfaces. 

Because the two prices are the same and they have costs on both ends they actually have a loss on this deal. 

My “math” only took into account PITI, condo fees, and management fees at $850, $232, and $123 respectively.I did not realize that you also needed to account for vacancies, maintenance, and CAPEX on top of that to get a true indication of cash flow.Adding these to the mix, my actual cash flow was -$585/month.Yikes.Upon my move, I figured I could save some money by paying off the second mortgage which had a remaining balance of about $11k.This dropped my actual loss down to ~500/month on a $23k investment.My property, originally worth 115k, for which I paid full price, was now worth ~$90k.Mind you, my stock portfolio had also dropped significantly.For my next military assignment, the Air Force moved me to Edwards AFB, CA in 2009 which is in the Mojave Desert about 1.5 hrs.

If it goes on the Schedule E and there's already a tax loss from depreciation, then the interest deduction would not result in a lower tax bill, but simply get carried forward to offset future rental income. 

You may be limited by time, money or other factors that would make some choices not feasible for you at this time.2) Set a reasonable goal for yourself based on what type of investment you're going to focus on.