Note that I have absolutely no problem with folks earning what they are worth (hey, power to you!)

All the rich folks had to have them.

As far as make or break, if you run your rental well in my area I think most folks do pretty good, because we have just about year round demand in this area, but to do REALLY well, you need the extra stuff I mentioned.

Do folks typically refinance to get this dropped at some point in time?

I have found working with appraisers to be the biggest wild card, glad there are some investor friendly folks like yourself near by. :)

If you go the OOS route then building a strong team with folks you trust is even more critical - especially your Realtor and Property Manager.

What tools or strategies to folks recommend to begin to analyze various markets? 

Love to see hard work being rewarded and folks achieving financial goals!

Hello BiggerPockets,Do any of you folks use census data like demographics, income, population , education etc in selecting a property or do you think it’s an overkill.Given 2020 census data will be accessible soon curious to see how the community is using it. 

But if we define it as buying a property as is for low price and selling it as is for higher price once we own it that is what the big we buy houses franchise folks do..