I have prepared numerous Schedule E's, Form 1065's, Schedule K-1s and also worked on a couple of 1031 exchanges during my time at the CPA firms.Any advice or resources for getting the ball rolling with real estate investing would be greatly appreciated!

We had our second home rented out before the closing.At this point and after reading numerous books on real estate, I realized that although we had reached our goal of owning a rental, our finances were completely vertical and I need to spread out to increase cash flow and reduce the impact of a vacant property.In January 2016, I started data basing different markets across the USA.

I have had numerous businesses through the years but it was serious health issue and the realization that disability social security payments would not allow me to live that made me want to build a successful RE portfolio.

Been there and done that numerous times.

My biggest issue with this appraisal is that he used a fixer upper that had recently been foreclosed on and a short sale as comps for a nicely remodeled home, when there are numerous remodeled sales in the neighborhood selling for $60,000 - $70,000 more.  

It's no longer about quantity, but quality to me. 

Often times it is better to focus on quality over quantity. 10 x 4-plexes is 40 units ... for example, if you can't meet your investment goal with 40 high quality, reasonably leveraged units or less in scottsdale, you may want to reassess your strategy IMO.

I've been interested in real estate investing(particularly buy and hold for cash flow) for some time, but always been hesitant to jump in.I've read numerous books, listened to almost 100 BP podcasts, been to some local REIA meetings, but I've yet to pull the trigger on anything.

If $2500/month is your only goal and you want it quickly then yeah cheap out of state could work in quantity.

These types of jobs or professions have many things in common I'm sure.Not only do you have a high degree of technical proficiency with numerous protocols but there is almost an "art" to employ the proper action and do so in, not just a timely manner, but very quickly, in an instant.