Also as I'm sure you know, the cost of labor and materials has been growing quite aggressively lately.

A lot has been said about online sales growing in the retail sector and what that might mean for brick and mortar properties.

Dont leave anything out on your lease, also as you gain more in years and experience your lease will continue  to grow and expand. 

If you save that money every month that will grow pretty quickly. 

@Ron Alexander For distribution, you can have one or more per LLC, and that depends on multiple factors:- property class - you might not want to mix A class property with a D class property in the same LLC, due to different tenant level- cash flow - you might want to keep your cash flow cow separate (and alone) from the ones that barely produce (and can be combined in one LLC till they start "producing")- equity - you might want to keep the one with large equity in its own LLC while you can group the ones with little equity in another LLC (let's say you have one with 50K equity in its own LLC and 3 other each with only 10K in another LLC, till their equity grows to your risk threshold when you move them out in their own LLC).- number of units (in the case of MF)- location of real estateThe investor has to decide what mix is optimal for their situation.If Series-LLC is an option for you, get one and put each property in its own child Series-LLC, problem solved.

Plus, interest income is taxed at ordinary income rates.If your dad lives in a high tax state like New York, his combined federal and state marginal tax rate could easily be 40% or more.

Phoenix has been up and coming for years now and is prospected to continue to grow.

does the overall population grow?

Ugh, learning, growing, licking my wounds...

Not that money grows on trees but you can always check out the local library and see if they have any of the books you want to read.