Here are four tips to help you set yourself up for a great inaugural year—and many more to come.Focus on DealsThis industry comes with a lot of moving parts.

Any tips and experience to share will be greatly apprecaited! 

I am looking for input on my analysis, critique of my numbers, and tips on how I might better analyze in the future.I used Rentometer to find similar rents in the area, Realtor.com to find the property, and the city website to find garbage disposal costs.

@Deborah Hardin gotcha. thanks for the tip

FYI to the college kids, UC Berkeley (top public university in the nation) after eight years in the Marines was the best vacation I'd ever had.

As I begin my research, do you by any chance have any expert tips or recommendations regarding pulling comps/determining ARV that I won’t find online?

( that glove didn’t fit) next he will say Michael Jackson was dangerous around kids lol

As in tips on contractual agreements, and other exit strategies for me, just in case the investment fails.

1st they should not have run a special on your property without you knowing, but they did get it filled, which is better than it being vacant - as long as the tenant pays. 2nd,PM's know your numbers more than you may, that's their business, don't kid yourself when you think they don't know your taxes and what you may be paying for mortgage, they know what you got the house for and can make a good educated guess on that and the insurance you probably pay, my PM is pretty close to knowing my exact numbers and i pay all taxes, mortgage and insurance. you do have to keep an eye on what there doing and the monthly statements, that is your property and money and it is not wrong to question them, but you also need to feel you can trust them in matters as well. sounds like you had one bad tenant after a good one, it happens, i am assuming this is your only property?

If you have kids, you know.