First and foremost, I need a great real estate agent who is able to provide stellar service and won't be turned off by individual smaller priced homes. 

Remember Fannie uses debt-to-income (DTI) but the commercial loan uses debt service coverage ratio (DSCR). 

I've been reading a lot about different investment and property management softwares/services and am kind of a tech guy myself.

@Maria Marrero  Dept Service Coverage Ratio or DSCR for short, is the amount of Net Operating Income ( NOI ), which does not include your mortgage, Divided by Total Dept Service (TDS) ( usually mortgage payments, equity loans ) so the formula is: DSCR=NOI/TDS.

(Also, I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad this year and liked it enough to buy the board game.)So, full disclosure I am a real estate agent that services Denver and Colorado Springs.

the Cash on Cash return and the Debt Servicing Ratio are the main things I look at first. 

Check out if the site have all the services to the boundary and that there are no easements or any under restrictions on the deed.

call a local note/loan services who does private notes and get a real estate attorney referral.

Basically the NOI is the rent less OPEX or Operating Expenses. but not including debt servicing.

That's not the service we look for with the vendors.