Real estate guarantees a source of passive income, and you can opt to use the investment as your retirement package.

After years of relative quiet, appliance-wise, we had to replace two refrigerators and a dishwasher in three different units.Both refrigerators, different brands, from different sources, arrived faulty.The first wouldn’t cool.

Is there a website or other source of information where I could start to get some basic knowledge on the US housing market rules and tax laws? 

You just have to go with off market leads either from wholesalers or from other sources you come up with (i.e. foreclosures lists, probate filings, etc).

The best lead source I ever found is propertyradar.com and it can do so many things for you it will take an hour to explain.

A very good source of local analysis is rereport.com 

What are the best sources to receive local real estate data I.e( market inventory, average days, median sale price, etc)?

How are you sourcing your notes?  

@Amanda PoltonYou should find a good investor friendly agent, modify your criteria, or start sourcing deals yourself for a duplex that makes sense for you.

My feeling is that they are growing fast, and eventually they could get greedier and bad things could happen.I started to look for other sources of information, so I came to bp.