I have estimates of the costs for architectural services and a ball park figures for the renovation costs, acquisition costs and a financial projection of the revenues and investor recompense. 

Hey guys.So I am currently in that space where I’ve been reading books and listening to podcasts but I am still about a year away from my first purchase (at least 6 months).To make a long story short, I’m cleaning up a mess a younger me didn’t realize would put a monkey wrench in the plan my current self has created to help me achieve financial freedom.With all the knowledge and experience everyone has been sharing, I’ve been feeling like I wanted to contribute to the community as well.But how does someone with no experience contribute to this wonderful community?

A good bookkeeper/financial advisor can get you setup with automated processes to make sure you know exactly where you stand for each property and show where every dime is spent. 

@Cisco Hood, not enough information to calculate a true financial decision.   

However, I want to provide security for my family long-term and attain Financial Freedom.

I stumbled upon Bigger Pockets 2 months ago through a Financial Literacy blog that I follow and have been an avid listener to the podcasts, which led to peaking my interest in RE investing.

You need to look through the Wind Shield in order to anticipate if the road ahead is clear or if there are obstacles that you need to avoid.Once you understand how to Drive your Business (or Investment), you start to do calculations based on the future, such as 10 year projections with Annualized Rental Increases, Expenses Increases, Rates of Return, Discounted Cash Flows, Internal Rates of Returns, etc.The people who think you can't calculate the future somehow missed the education which clearly has financial formulas that are designed for that.I am hoping the readers of this post really try to think about why there are formulas like FUTURE VALUE (FV)....... is that just something in someone's imagination?!

It is helping you weed out bad tenants.If they are not financially responsible enough to save that tiny amount of money they are just a breeze in the wind away from not being able to pay the rent.

The long and short of it is that the trust would sell the props and reinvest into other income producing assets, and you could draw income from the trust during your life, and then whatever remains when you pass would go to your chosen charity (or educational institution, they reeeeealllly push this on their wealthy alums, but I like the idea of funding a worthy charity, personally).

I ran the numbers on a condo I own and I realize it is underperforming financially compared to a home I recently bought.